:-su

t:HI MINH CITY UNnfE!RSITY OF FOREIGN L..ANGUAGF.SAND
INfORMAYION

TECHNOl.OOY

DEPA...~TMENT OF FOREIGN

LANGUAGES

GRADUATION PAPER

A SiVIALL SURVEY ON THE RESULTS
ENGLISH
TRAINING

ADMINISTRATIVE
PROGRAM

OF COURSE

OF THE

l\IANAGEIVIENT

TOWARDS iTS GR~L\nQATES

5.1999 AND SOl'vIE SlJGGE~TJONS

Advisor:

MI'. vO

Student:

TRUONG TIlT TlWET MINH

Quae

Student's number:
Class: HAOIOI

IIfflIlli~j1lllillllllll]1
101000453

llll Chl J\linh Lity, .Julf 2005

.

ANH. M.A.

0171224



HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY

OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY


DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN

LANGUAGES

GRADUATION PAPER

A SMALL SURVEY ON THE RESULTS OF THE
ENGLISH ADMINISTRATIVE

MANAGEMENT

TRAINING PROGRAM TOWARDS ITS GRADUATES
OF COURSE 5.1999 AND SOME SUGGESTIONS

Advisor:

Mr.

vD Quae

ANH, M.A.

Student: TRUONG THJ TUYET MINH
Student's number: 0171224

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2005

_~


4



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my sincere thank to the Department of Foreign
Languages for giving me the opportunity to conduct this graduation paper. This is a
great chance for me to accumulate more knowledge and experience.

I have been very lucky to be sponsored by Mr.

Vu

Quac Anh, who is always

enthusiatic to give me help, advice, encouragement, commentaries and ideas of how
to develop this graduation

paper. Without his help, this paper would not be

completed. I would like to express my special gratitude to him.

In addition, I would like to send my special thanks to HUFLIT's graduates of course
5.1999 of English Administrative

Management as well as their employers, who

responded to the questionnaire and contributed valuable suggestions for my paper.

Finally, I am truly grateful to my parents, classmates and friends, especially Ms. Ng6

NgQc Thuy Tien, Ms. Truong Minh Xuan Lan, Ms. Le Phan Bich Tran and Ms.
Nguyen Thj Minh Nguy~t because of their help and devotion.


ADVISOR'S

COMMENTS

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ABSTRACT
Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages-Information Technology (HUFLlT)
as well as its Department
Administrative


of Foreign Languages has developed an English

Management Training Program for students who want to be office

workers after graduation. However, so far there have not been any surveys on
graduates of the program in order to give HUFLIT a feedback of its outputs to the
labor market. Therefore, this graduation paper was carried out with an attempt to
survey the results of the program towards its graduates of course 5.1999. The survey
focused on evaluating the basic skills and knowledge of these graduates in their office
work. Questionnaires were sent to thirty nine graduates and their twenty five
employers who gave evaluations towards graduates' working

performance.

The

findings showed that most graduates' skills and knowledge were good, but some
were not. One possible explanation is that many subjects of the program have
contributed to graduates' good performance. However, the program is also lack of
some fields that office work is asking for at the moment. Thus, some suggestions
were given to the program's improvements so that it could meet the requirements of
current office work.

____

J


TABLES OF CONTENT
Page

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

01

CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISH ADMINISTRATIVE
MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROGRAM OF COURSE 5.1999 OF HUFLIT

06
CHAPTER 3: METHOD
3.1.
Subjects of the Survey
3.1.1. Description of HUFLIT's Graduates
3.1.2. Description of Employers
3.2.
Materials
3.2.1. Conversations
3.2.2. Questionnaires
3.3.
Procedure

11

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1.
Findings and Discussions from Graduates' Questionnaires
4.2.
Findings and Discussions from Employers' Questionnaires


15

CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION
5.1.
Suggestions
5.1.1. Suggestions for Learners of the English Administrative
Training Program
5.1.2. Suggestions for the Program
5.2.
Conclusion
5.3.
Limitations
APPENDICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY

II
II

12
12
12
13
14

IS

28
36
36
Management

36
37
41

41


Chapter One

INTRODUCTION
All companies, no matter what their sizes and functions are, need the support
from an official staff to run their operations smoothly and effectively.
Therefore, they have been searching for this staff from many sources, and
one of the best choices is from universities which train office workers.
In order to meet the need, since 1995, Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign
Languages-Information Technology (HUFLlT) as well as the Department of
Foreign Languages of HUFLIT has developed an English Administrative
Management Training Program for those who desire to be office workers
after graduation. The program aims to:
• Educate students with foreign languages and official knowledge to
equip them an adequate ability to work as directors' assistants or
secretaries as well as to master reception protocol and office
management.
• Develop masterly computer skills for word processing.
(Source: HUFLIT's guidebook, 1999)
Up to now, over five hundred students specializing in English Administrative
Management graduated from HUFLIT. This means that the university has sent
out more than five hundred of its outputs to the labor market. As we know,
universities and colleges all start to develop their training programs based on
the labor market needs. Thus, it is extremely important for a university to

know the working capacity of its graduates who directly enjoyed the university
training when interacting with real working environment. However, so far

1


there have not been any surveys on HUFLIT's graduates to give the university
a feedback of its outputs.
Moreover, HUFLIT is not the only university which possesses the training
program for future office workers. Many others have been supplying the
similar labor force to the society. In such a competitive labor market, whether
the knowledge and skills provided at HUFLIT meet employers' demands or
not, how much they fit the requirements, and what the strengths and
weaknesses of HUFLIT's outputs are, are truly matters of concern.
Up to now, plenty of researchers have proved that university graduates are
good candidates for most companies' vacancies. As Nguyen and Nguyen
(2003: 98) say, recruiters' job is to "visit college campuses and trade schools
to ask teachers to recommend qualified students". In other words, university
training plays an important role in forming a qualified labor force to the
society since "university graduation is somehow a guarantee that candidates
have achieved fundamental knowledge, got suitable expertise and trained their
logical thinking through learning such as reasoning and synthesis" (Phan,
2002: 22).
Therefore, all universities and colleges have designed their training courses
based on the needs of employers. The highest and final purpose of any
university is to equip its students with adequate knowledge and skills to meet
the requirements of concrete jobs and work effectively afterwards. Training
administrative students is not an exception. The time students learn and train
themselves in secretarial schools is extremely important to set up the
necessary premise for their later working prestige. The more efforts students

spend in this time, the more firm foundation for their prestige (Duong,
Nguyen and Tran, 1997: 208).

2


University training and graduates' working capacity, hence, have very close
relationship. As Vuong (2000: 33) puts it "In general, capacity is a concept
including

elements of knowledge, skill (or ability)

and experience. In

particular, working capacity is the result of working performance of an
individual". This indicates that even though new-graduates possess lots of
knowledge, skills and abiiities, it is meaningiess if these elements are not
showed through their working capacity.
Furthermore, the social demand is now much higher and new technology is
invented more day by day. If one does not improve himself/ herself adapting
to these speedy changes, he/ she will be left behind. For office workers, at
present, the social demand for their working capacity is higher than before.
Pham (2001:

36) states that office workers

must have "professional

knowledge, effective problem awareness and solving skill, exact information
and work dealing".

It is "advisable" that receptionists "have a good command of at least one
foreign language, especially English, to keep pace with the speed and
demand of globalization" (Nguyen and Nguyen, 2003: 11). According to
Duong, Nguyen and Tran (1997: 254), "as the closest and most trustworthy
assistants to directors, secretaries must keep on developing their professional
skills, foreign languages and other skills adapting to reality requirements and
deserving directors' trust". Do, Ngo and Vo (1997: 9) also point out that "the
new information epoch is not considered a threat to us, but it has created a
great opportunity

for secretaries and office workers to improve their

professional skills".
These are the reasons why many universities and colleges which produce
future office workers have tried to improve their training adapting to the

3


requirements. In Giao due & Sang tao, it is reported that Lotus College has
been inserting two internships into its theory terms so that students have
chances to look back and adjust themselves to fix employers' requirements,
and Lotus can also adjust its training contents and methods to suit with
reality. "The employment

rate of Lotus graduates is updated everyday"

("Truong C£)BC Hoa Sen: luon quan tam den chat luong", 2002: 26). In Tuoi
Tre, it is stated that Professor Banh Tien Long, vice Minister of the Ministry
of Education and Training, had asserted on December 4, 2004 that in reality,

there

is the

appearance

of

market,

service

factors,

supply-demand

relationship, especially in professional education. They are objective factors
creating a competitive environment among university education premises and
forcing the universities, lecturers as well as students try to reach higher
quality and better training outputs. The first people who enjoy the competition
are learners and the second is the society ("Co hay khong thi truong giao
duc", 2004: 10).
Nowadays, in the competitive environment in the business world, many
employers not only recruit qualified university graduates but they also prefer
experienced ones. It means that university training quality of practical skills
adapting to social reality is rather weak ("Day manh cai cach giao duc dai
hoc ngay va truoc het", Giao due & Sang tao, 2003: 7). In Thanh nien, it is
upset to be revealed that we have been producing engineers and bachelors of
art who know everything but do not know anything deeply enough to start
their work immediately without retraining ("Tai sao dai hoc Viet Nam chua

hap dan?", 2004: 7).
Although the above ideas come from different authors working in different
fields, they all have one thing in common: It is necessary for a university to

4


look back at its graduates, and training

improvements

should be made

regularly.
Therefore, this graduation paper has three following aims:
•

To give HUFLIT a feedback of the training
Administrative

results of the English

Management Program towards its graduates of course

5.1999.
•

To give some suggestions for some improvements towards HUFLIT's
training program for administrative students.


The focus of this paper is on evaluating the basic knowledge, skills and
abilities in real office work of graduates of course 5.1999 of Administrative
Management

in some first working months to find out whether the teaching

program of A.M has produced a suitable labor source for the society. This
evaluation is carried out through responses of a part of the graduates and
their employers.
The organization of this graduation paper expresses five chapters. Chapter
one is the introduction.
Administrative

Chapter two is an overview

of the English

Management Training Program of HUFLIT of course 5.1999

with the expected outcomes of each subject of the program. Chapter three
presents the method to carry out the paper including the description of
samples and materials for the survey. The findings and discussions are found
in chapter four. Chapter five is devoted to some suggestions for the English
Administrative

Management Training Program of HUFLlT, the conclusion and

the limitations of the survey.

5



Chapter Two

AN OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISH
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT TRAINING
PROGRAM OF COURSE 5.1999 OF HUFLIT
As mentioned above, the aims of the A.M. Training Program of course 5.1999
of HUFLIT are:
•

Educating students with foreign languages and official knowledge to
equip them an adequate ability to work as directors' assistants or
secretaries

as well as to master

reception protocol and office

management.
•

Developing masterly PC skills for word processing.

For the students of A.M. of course 5.1999 to reach the objectives, in four
years, besides developing general knowledge (Vietnamese in Use, Scientific
Communism, Viet Nam Communist Party's History, Psychology, Viet Nam
Cultural Basis, etc.) and language skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and
Writing) for students, the university also specially equipped students the
following courses with their expected outcomes:

2.1. Administrative Dossiers
The required textbook for the course:
English for Secretaries - Oxford University Press
Period of the course:
60 periods (4 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
•

Use their English to function efficiently and confidently in their jobs.

6


•

Deal with office situations e.g. meeting visitors; taking telephone
messages; writing letters, telegrams and memos; correcting draft
correspondence; understanding recorded information; writing sales
reports; etc.

2.2. Reception Protocol
The required textbook for the course:
Quan H~ Quac Te & Cong Tac Le Tan - Nguyen Chi Than
Period of the course:
60 periods (4 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to understand the
basic concept of international relations and regulations as well as
international custom of reception protocol.

2.3. Business Assignments
The required textbook for the course:
Business Assignment - Oxford University Press
A Handbook of Commercial Correspondence - Youth Publishing House,
translated by Tan Chau
Period of the course:
60 periods (8 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Understand different concepts of agencies, shipping,

insurance

policies and claims, placing - acknowledging an order, delivery and
banking.
•

Write different types of letters of acknowledging or suggestions.

•

Have a notion about insurance money accounts, as well as different
types of payment.
7


•

Discuss and take turns to give their opinions.


2.4. Introduction to Management
The required textbook for the course:
Management - Patrick Montana & Bruce Charnov, 1987
Period of the course:
60 periods (4 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
•

Increase their effectiveness in reading and listening in this subject
area.

•

Develop speaking and writing skills around this subject area.

•

Extend their active vocabulary of both specific managing terms and
more general business English.

•

Transfer this knowledge of the language to their work or study
situation.

2.5. Human Resource Management
The required textbook for the course:
Supervision in Action - Prentice Hall of Australia, 1992
Period of the course:

60 periods (4 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
• Understand how the labor forces are managed in enterprises .
• Apply the skills obtained satisfactorily in certain situations.
2.6. Filing
The required textbook for the course:
Van Ban va LLfUTru HQc 89i CL1dng
8


Period of the course:
45 periods (3 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
•

Have knowledge of administrative management documents and
archives.

•

Know the method to compose, scientifically organize and
administer documents.

•

Know how to choose documents to file and retrieve as well as to
utilize archives.


2.7. Office Skills
The required textbook for the course:
Office Career
Period of the course:
60 periods (4 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
•

Understand different concepts related to office work.

•

Write different types of letters.

•

Have a notion about the responsibility of an office worker.

•

Perform some basic tasks usually handled by managers in different
fields such as marketing, advertising and public relations, etc.

9


2.8. Introduction to Accounting
The required textbook for the course:
Principles of Accounting 1_Sth edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, USA

Period of the course:
60 periods (4 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
• Increase their effectiveness in reading and listening in this subject
area.
• Understand basic concepts of management accounting and apply
the principles of accounting .
• Deal with the accounting problems and analyze the accounting
information for a Service and Merchandising enterprise.
2.9. International

Marketing

The required textbook for the course:
Marketing: An Introduction - Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong (1990),
2nd edition, Prentice Hall Inc.
Period of the course:
60 periods (4 credits)
Expected outcomes after the course:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
•

Understand and apply basic Marketing principles in the global
market.

•

Analyze market opportunities In the region as well as in the world.


(Training course outlines, 1999, HUFLlT)

10


Chapter Three

METHOD
3.1. Subjects of the Survey
3.1.1. Description of HUFLIT's Graduates
In the course 5.1999, there were three classes, HA9901, HA9902 and
HA9903. Since the writer could not contact any students of class HA9903,
the subjects for the survey were only chosen from graduates of class HA9901
and HA9902.
A group of thirty-nine graduates (Group A) were chosen among fifty-seven
graduates of class HA9901 and HA9902. The subjects were female office
workers and from twenty four to twenty seven years old. They were chosen
for the survey because of the four following reasons:
•

They directly enjoyed HUFLIT's English Administrative

Management

(A.M.) Training Program; therefore, they might supply evaluations of
their knowledge, skills and abilities which were mostly related to the
program.
•

They were working as office workers which were the target jobs of the

program.

•

Graduating from HUFLIT already and no longer depending on the
school, they might be mature and confident enough to supply frank
and helpful suggestions for the training program after nearly two years
interacting with real office work.

•

The most important reason was that they have been working for their
first company since graduation. This would facilitate the survey which
aimed at surveying graduates' working capacity in some first working
11


months based on the knowledge and skills provided at HUFLIT. If
graduates have worked for more than one company as office workers,
they might accumulate a lot of knowledge, skills, experience and other
training from these companies which would affect the results of their
evaluations. Furthermore, it was not easy to ask former managers to
evaluate the working capacity of their former employees.
3.1.2. Description of Employers
The subjects were employers (Group B) of HUFLIT's English administrative
graduates of course 5.1999. They were twenty five direct managers in the
departments where the graduates worked including seven foreign employers.
The reason why there were twenty five ones instead of thirty nine was that
five of them refused to answer the questionnaires and nine employers'
questionnaires could not be collected.

The university's outputs could be judged objectively by these employers since
they enjoyed HUFLIT's training

result indirectly and observed clearly the

HUFLIT's graduates' working capacity in some first working months.
3.2. Materials
The materials to carry out the survey included informal conversations between
the research doer and the graduates, and two questionnaires.
3.2.1. Conversations
Conversations were made with Group A. The conversations were used to
facilitate the questionnaires delivery. The aim of them was to exclude
unsuitable subjects for the survey, including graduates who were been office
workers, who went abroad for their further studies or for settlement, who had
delayed their graduation and just left school in March, 2005 and those who

12


have worked for more than one company as office workers with the reasons
mentioned above.
The conversations usually took place in informal and friendly atmosphere to
make the respondents comfortable for asking them to evaluate their own
knowledge, skills, and abilities seemed to be quite sensitive matter. Moreover,
this atmosphere was to let graduates express all their opinions and feelings
about the program they enjoyed and gave straightforward suggestions for the
program.

3.2.2.


Questionnaires

(Appendices 1, 2, 3)

Two questionnaires were used for the survey. One was designed for group A,
and one for group B. In order to save respondents' time, the questionnaires
were designed both in Vietnamese. However, the latter was translated into
English for the seven foreign employers.
The two questionnaires based on the most basic skills and knowledge that
HUFLIT provided the learners of course 5.1999.

Both groups evaluated

graduates' working performance according to four extent: "Excellent", "Good",
"Average" and "Below average", There were some minor changes in the
pronouns and some questions of the two questionnaires to fix with each type
of respondents.
The questionnaires also presented all major subjects that administrative
graduates learnt at HUFLIT in the course 5.1999 as well as some other fields
that would be necessary to office workers in order to identify which are
essential to office work nowadays. The alumni as well as the employers were
also asked to give their

suggestions

Management Training Program.
13

for the


English

Administrative


3.3. Procedure
Firstly, conversations were made to fifty seven graduates of the two classes.
Eighteen graduates who were not suitable for the survey were excluded.
Secondly, two questionnaires were copied and handed to the suitable
graduates as well as their employers. Seven copies of the English version
were delivered to seven foreign managers. The purpose of the survey was
expressed clearly so that responses were taken seriously for an objective
result. Thirdly, the answers from the respondents were collected. Finally,
thirty nine completed questionnaires from graduates and twenty five ones
from employers were used for data analysis.

14


Chapter Four

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The data collected from the questionnaires of both graduates of course 5.1999
of English Administrative Management and their employers will be presented
in the tables below accompanied with their interpretations and discussions.
4.1. Findings and Discussions from Graduates' Questionnaires
4.1.1. Questions
Table 1: Graduates' Adaptability to Working Environment
Question


a. One month

b. Two months

c. Three months

d. Four months

e. More than
four months

1

53,8%

28,2%

12,8%

5,2%

0%

The first table refers to graduates' adaptability to their working environment.
53,8% spent one month getting acquainted with their new working places,
28,2% got used to the companies in two months, 12,8% adapted in three
months, and the rest (5,2%) spent four months on their adaptation. This can
be inferred that the image of administrative graduates about the working
environment of an office worker was extremely good, so it took most of them
only one or two months to adapt to their companies.

The English Administrative Management Training Program might contribute
to form this good image. With many subjects related to the basic skills and
knowledge of official

staff such as Filing, Reception Protocol, Official

Computer Skills, English for Secretaries, Office Skills, etc., the program has
built up an awareness of office work as well as the position and functions of
official staff within an organization. In other words, the program has related
administrative students to their environment.
15


Table 2: Graduates' Document and Commercial Letter Composing Skill
Question

a. Excellent

b. Good

c. Average

d. Below
average

2

23,1%

53,8%


20,5%

2,6%

The statistics in Table 2 present how graduates composed documents and
commercial letters in their office work. According to the table, good business
writing skill was performed by more than a half of Group A (23,1% for
Excellent and 53,8% for Good). This result may prove that the textbooks of
English for Secretaries, Business Assignments, A handbook of Commercial
Correspondence, Business Translation and Office Skills, which the students
studied, activated their business writing skills as well as vocabularies.
However, writing business letters is considered as an art, which requires a
subtle intellect and experience, so graduates' writing capacity in majority
were good, not excellent. They would reach "Excellent" after longer time
practicing writing.
As for graduates who could not write well (20,5% average and 2,6% below
average), it can be explained that they had not accumulated business
vocabularies and writing regularly when learning at school in spite of theory
only. Consequently, they had difficulties dealing with commercial writing in
reality.
Table 3: Graduates' Filing Skill
Question

a. Excellent

b. Good

c. Average


d. Below
average

3

20,6%

53,8%

25,6%

0%

16