Vietnam’s seas contain huge potentials. To turn these potentials into resources for the country’s development, it is necessary to implement a number of measures synchronously in which “Strengthening education and development of the marine human resource” is considered one of the main solutions for successfully realizing the “Strategy for the sustainable development of Vietnam marine economy by 2030 with a vision to 2045” in light of the Resolution 36-NQ/TW of the Party Central Committee (XII tenure).
Over the past years, although the development of the marine human resource in our country has gained some positive results, there still remain some limitations, such as: inadequacy in quantity and quality, improperness in the proportion, and failure as a key factor in the sustainable development of the marine economy. There are some causes to these problems, namely: the marine educational and research institutions have yet to receive due investments; researchers, educators, as well as teaching facilities have yet to meet the requirements of developing a high-skill human resource; international cooperation in the field of training marine human resource haven’t been paid much attention; vocational training and transition for coastal residents haven’t been carried out in a fundamental and scientific manner; marine skills are mainly passed from generations to generations on an experience-based fashion; inheriting marine profession from older generations is largely taken for granted by fishermen.
To overcome the above limitations and improve the quality and effectiveness of the training of marine human resource, meeting the requirements of sustainable development of marine economy in the era of open policies and international integration, it is necessary to carry out a number of measures. First, it is necessary to review and perfect the system of marine laws and policies, and have mechanism for supporting the improvement of training quality of the marine educational institutions to make them regional standardized; offer preferential treatments to attract the talents for the purpose of building an international-standardized staff of managers, scientists and experts specialized in oceanography; strengthen education to raise awareness and knowledge of sea and ocean, and the skills to exist and adapt to climate change, sea level rise, natural disaster prevention and control for pupils and students at all levels of study; effectively hold vocational training to meet the demand for human resource of marine economic sectors and the transition of profession of coastal people.
Besides, it is necessary to strengthen investment in the researching and teaching facilities of the marine research and educational institutions; pay attention to widen external relations and international cooperation to take advantage of international support and resources for enhancing the capability for managing and exploiting marine resources as well as for developing a high skill marine human resource.
Thoroughly implementing the above measures will help developing a high skill human resource which will play the key role in the sustainable development of marine economy and contribute to make Vietnam a strong, sustainably developed, prosperous and secured marine country.
Pham Binh