Sumitomo Corporation Vietnam (SCVN) has joined a program named PBL (Project Based Learning), which was designed by the Foreign Trade University (FTU) in Hanoi, Vietnam, to help university students speak Japanese like Japanese businesspeople.
Japan is a major foreign investor in Vietnam. In recent years, the number of Japanese companies operating in Vietnam has reached more than 2,000 and is still on the rise. In addition to Japanese companies in Vietnam, the number of Vietnamese companies entering joint ventures and cooperative relationships with Japan is also increasing. This means that speaking Japanese has become an important skill for the younger generation to create a comfortable working environment. As a result, the number of people learning Japanese has increased more than 17-fold in the past 20 years.
The PBL Program, that SCVN has been participating in since 2019, is for third and fourth year students who will graduate soon and wish to work for Japanese companies. Through this program, students are expected to develop better social skills and a deeper knowledge of Japanese companies.
Lecture by TLIP employee
The program is held as a workshop in three phases – one every three to four weeks.
In phase 1, Japanese representatives from companies in Hanoi are invited to give speeches introducing their companies.
In phase 2, students visit companies. They will visit the site under the guidance of the instructor to deepen their understanding of the company.
In the last phase, after doing research, the students make presentations about what they have learned about the companies or their ideas for the company’s projects.
In 2023, we introduced our Manufacturing DX Services in Thang Long Industrial Park (TLIP). Around 40 students participated in each class. From SCVN and TLIP, a total of six Vietnamese and Japanese staff members joined each event as planners and lecturers.
“Through the PBL class, I learned a lot about the Sumitomo Corporation Group and Manufacturing DX Services in TLIP. In the future, I would like to get involved in the businesses that Sumitomo Corporation is involved in.”
“Manufacturing DX Services will definitely bring many positive changes to the lives of Vietnamese people. I hope Sumitomo Corporation will be successful in many future projects.”
We also got comment from Head of the Business Japanese Language Department, Foreign Trade University.
“The students learned about your company, performed research for their assignments, wrote reports in Japanese, and made presentations to propose solutions to the problems that your company faces.
Sumitomo Corporation Group’s PBL classes provide FTU students with a valuable opportunity not only to improve their Japanese language skills but also to deepen their understanding of actual business.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Employees who participated in the program not only contributed to the students, but also had an opportunity to make new discoveries and learn new things for themselves.
The theme of this lecture was "Measures and issues to develop services in Vietnam that are being worked on at TLIP and Manufacturing DX. Five teams of fourth-year university students gave presentations on the theme and proposed ideas from different perspectives (sales destinations, necessary service functions, upgrading internal operations, marketing measures, etc.), all in Japanese, including presentations and materials. They gave confident presentations, pointed out sharp points about services, and made constructive suggestions, some of which were actually helpful for our consideration. They also had a high level of Japanese language ability (many of them could speak English as well), and I thought that there might be students who would work with them in Sumitomo Corporation in the future."
Yuta Mukai, Digital Strategy & Promotion Dept., on assignment at TLIP
March 2024
