The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is seeking partnership opportunities in Vietnam's healthcare sector through the forums “Empowering Vietnam’s skilled workforce: Demands and opportunities in the healthcare sector” in Hanoi and HCM City.

The forums successfully connected eight Australian vocational education and training (VET) institutions with over 140 representatives from industry associations, hospital, and nursing centers, and universities in Vietnam.

“The Australian Government knows how important Australian education is to support Vietnam’s economic development objectives. It is my firm belief that Australian education institutions will be the fuel that will power Vietnam to become a high-income country by 2045,” said Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski at Hanoi’s forum.

Australian Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski delivered the speech at the Forum. Photo courtesy of embassy

Education is a foundational pillar of Australia and Vietnam’s bilateral relationship and has been for more than 50 years. The Australia-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) announced by two Prime Ministers in March 2024 expressed the commitment to working together even more to support Vietnam’s human resources development. This includes a pledge to further explore opportunities to increase cooperation in education and training through two-way exchanges, dialogue, and institutional linkages.

The Education mission to Vietnam, consisting of eight Australian VET providers, from July 22-25, explored an array of lucrative opportunities in Vietnam’s booming senior care market and how Australian VET capabilities match with Vietnamese healthcare training needs.

Australian delegates shared their training expertise and industry engagement experience with Vietnamese healthcare stakeholders at two forums in Hanoi and HCM city; gained detailed insights into Vietnam’s healthcare sector development and growing needs for the skilled workforce through visits to hospitals and nursing centers in Vietnam.

Australian delegation visited a hospital and nursing home in Hanoi. Photo courtesy of Austrade Vietnam

According to Rebecca Ball, Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner, Austrade Vietnam, Vietnam’s healthcare industry presents a significant opportunity with major private sector investment in the market. The opening of new facilities that are of international standards will lead to increased training needs as well as new occupations emerging, of which Australian skills and training education expertise can help develop the relevant skills needed in Vietnam’s workforce.

Addressing challenges in this industry will require a strong partnership approach involving the hospital and local and international training providers. The forum also addressed the new “Enterprise Enabling Model” and potential tripartite arrangements in the future between the Australian VET provider, Industry partner, and local VET provider. An enterprise enablement methodology for workforce development provides a sustainable approach to building employee capability from within an organization. This approach goes beyond providing traditional training services to working with organizations to understand, plan and jointly execute their human resource development strategy. Training services are aimed at equipping the organization to sustainably uplift capability and expand capacity for future initiatives.