The opening of Office Management major: a right move

This year is the first year FASOM has produced 29 bachelors of office management. This major has been offered at the Faculty since 1997 but only 4 years ago was it separated to become an independent major.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Vu Thi Phung (Head of Division of Office Management) said the development of curriculum for this major requires the Faculty's efforts and dedication as the position and importance of Office Management become more and more recognized by businesses. Accordingly, office is the workplace of a leader and his team of advisors, which serves as the headquarters of an organization and its good management can greatly contribute to the organization's success. 

The Faculty's Office Management curriculum provides students with professional knowledge of the management and administration of the entire office at agencies, organizations and businesses. Graduates can perform the basic skills required of a versatile officer at small and medium enterprises, and also take on professional tasks such as setting up protocols, managing archives, acting as an assistant, holding events, managing personnel and facilities at big enterprises. By growing capability, they can become local office managers and special administrative assistants to their managers.

Regarding skills, bachelors of this major are good at compiling and managing texts, storing documents and files, and especially are trained to collect and process information and give useful advise to managers.

In addition, they are equipped with the special skills of a modern and professional officer, who can respond to the increasing pressure at highly competitive businesses and companies. They know how to communicate with their superiors, colleagues, followers and interact with clients and partners. They know how to present the issues and persuade managers of how to perform their assigned tasks or projects. They know how to resolve conflicts in an office to balance their professional relations manage time, make plans, respond to mistakes and overcome difficulties.

All the knowledge is used to produce prospective employees that have the right professional attitude, understand their positions, always be active and creative to contribute to their units. Right in the second year, students majoring Office Management engage in internships and field trips at businesses to see the realities through theoretical "lens".

Mrs Do Thi Thanh (Director of Department of Administration, the National Assembly's Office) highly appreciated the Faculty's innovated and developed thinking in introducing Office Management according to pratical needs. She said the position of personal secretary to manager had been inefficient because secretaries worked based on experiences rather than professional training. But now, this profession is trained at the Faculty and this is encouraging. She also emphasized the Faculty has to strengthen the wide promotion and introduction of the major's outputs to businesses and society in general.

Mr Nguyen Thanh Hoan (General Manager of Vinavico, President of the Vietnam-ASEAN Club of Businessmen) said: The office and personnel sectors have to be a company's center. Businesses today are increasingly aware of the importance of governance. Therefore, it was right to introduce Office Management at the Faculty. 

Training Archival studies: always update current information

If Office Management is a new major, Archival Studies is a traditional and historic one of the Faculty for over half a century. The outputs of this major have been evaluated and accredited by domestic and foreign employers in a long time. The Faculty is not only considered a leading unit in this area in Vietnam but also the whole Southeast Asia.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Dao Duc Thuan (Head of Division of Archival Studies) said: the curriculum of Archival Studies always aims at approaching up-to-date knowledge in the world, not only knowledge of managing Government authorities and applying IT in modern archiving but also of digitalized archives, changing archiving thinking, archiving marketing data, and archiving oral texts.

More than half of the human resources traditionally produced by the Faculty are working at national and local archives. Students majoring Archival Studies can work at a broad range of organizations from central and local authorities, political and social organizations to public and private enterprises. The Faculty also produces lecturers of this science for most of the domestic universities and colleges.

Mr. Han Manh Tien (President of the Vietnam Association of business administraters) said archiving at organizations have to be reconsidered, as records of a business' operations throughout time not only hold material but also high spiritual values. In this context, the Faculty can expand its professional and frequent consulting on archiving and exhibiting records at businesses. 

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai (Vice Director of the National Archives Center I) said, the Faculty has been right in attempting to modernize the thinking of archiving. The development of the 4th revolution makes digital archives increasingly important compared to their print counterpoints. It involves the coding and assigning of QR codes, and users need only a smart phone to connect to a digitalized archive. In addition, many members of businesses said the Faculty should invest in developing a portal of information, increasing interactions through its fanpage, and making frequent and regular introductions to its training outputs in a detailed fashion.

Also at the meeting, FOSAM prepared and shared profiles detailing the basic information of the two mentioned majors and contact information of new graduates with recruitment businesses.