Pearson–AWS Report Finds AI Skills Gap for Vietnamese Graduates

Vietnamese universities are spending on artificial intelligence and their students feel ready for it, but employers are far less convinced. That is the central finding of the Pearson-AWS AI Readiness Report, launched in Hanoi on Tuesday, October 6, according to Viet Nam News.

The survey found that 96 per cent of higher education leaders in Vietnam said their institutions were investing in AI, and more than 52 per cent of students rated their readiness to work in an AI-enabled environment at 8 to 10 out of 10. Yet only 15 per cent of employers rated recent graduates as excellent across eight areas, including technical knowledge, adaptability, use of AI tools, communication and the critical evaluation of AI outputs. On that last skill the figure was just 8 per cent. The Vietnam sample covered 402 respondents, 301 students, 50 university leaders and faculty and 51 employers, within a six-market study that also included Brazil, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UK and the US.

Employers were specific about what goes wrong. Some 43 per cent cited poor AI habits such as over-reliance on outputs and weak fact-checking, 37 per cent pointed to limited practical experience and 35 per cent to over-reliance on AI tools. Meanwhile 90 per cent of Vietnamese university leaders said AI-driven workplace change was happening extremely or very fast, against a global average of 67 per cent, yet only 28 per cent of institutions were keeping up with all developments.

What it means in practice

The report classifies Vietnam as a “High-Velocity Strategist”, a market treating AI as a strategic priority. That matches the policy push AI4Vietnam has tracked, from the education ministry’s draft national AI education framework to VNU-HCM’s VND 1.875 trillion commitment to AI, chips, robotics and quantum labs. The new data suggest money and access are no longer the main constraint; teaching students to apply and verify AI is.

Pearson’s Brett Blumenthal suggested universities and businesses jointly build authentic workplace tasks, such as asking students to use AI to prepare a proposal, verify its claims, identify its limitations and explain their recommendations. The report’s three priorities are co-designing learning outcomes and assessments with employers, giving students more realistic practice, and strengthening faculty capacity to teach and assess applied AI. Already, 84 per cent of higher education leaders said they engage regularly with employers.

Some caution is due: the Vietnam employer sample is small, at 51 respondents, and the study comes from two companies that sell education and cloud training. What to watch: whether universities bring employers into assessment design, and whether the next edition shows the confidence gap narrowing.