Day 4 — Education Trade Mission in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City
April 6, 2011Amanda Lawrence is an intern working with the U.S. Commercial Service to support the Education Mission to Indonesia and Vietnam.
Everyone is very excited to kick off the Vietnam stops of the Education Mission! Yesterday was a travel day and it was nice to briefly relax before embarking on our busy day today in Ho Chi Minh City. First thing this morning we attended a market briefing session with U.S. Commercial, U.S. Consular, and EducationUSA officials. Under Secretary Sánchez welcomed us to Ho Chi Minh City and spoke of the strong growth of Vietnamese students to the United States, an average of over 30 percent in the past five years! A briefing roundtable discussed the education environment in Vietnam.
After the briefings, we all attended an Education Partnering Workshop at the Rex Hotel. The workshop consisted of roundtable discussions as well as opportunities to network with local schools hoping to create partnerships. Next, interested schools participated in matchmaking sessions with education agents. There many agencies represented and the mission participants were very pleased with the business relationships they established as a result of these meetings.
We spent the rest of the day at the student fair. The Institute of International Education organized the event, which consisted of 56 exhibitors and 1,000 participants. Each trade mission participant exhibited at the fair and met with students and parents. They also had the choice to meet with local universities, potential recruitment partners, or have high school visits. Despite our very busy schedule, participants were very pleased with today’s meetings and fair.
lots of participants, 1,000 participants in exhibit seem to be awesome, good job
How does the proportion of college students in Vietnam going to the USA compare to those going to Australia and Europe? And how many of these students are going back to work in Vietnam ultimately?