Many international students, including those from prestigious universities in Asia, have opted to serve internships at companies in Ho Chi Minh City.

Among these students are five students who are interning at AIVision Joint Stock Company (AIVision), which specializes in AI solutions, in Phu Nhuan District.

Of the five, three are enrolled at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the others come from Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

These are two prestigious universities in Singapore, holding high positions in the latest QS World University Rankings announced by the UK-based education organization Quacquarelli Symonds.

Among the five students is Choy Qi Hui, a Singaporean majoring in analytical data science at the NUS Faculty of Science, who came to the company in May for a three-month internship, along with the other interns.

Choy’s team has been assigned to support the front-end programming (website interface) for the company’s new chatbot, and the team must update their work progress weekly.

“Our internship work is not too difficult, partly thanks to the enthusiastic guidance of our senior colleagues," Choy said.

"However, there are still some gaps between what I have learned in the classroom and the actual work.

"What we have absorbed at school is more theoretical, while what we are practicing requires practical knowledge and skills.

Going abroad for an internship will help him learn more than staying home; moreover, Vietnam is a rapidly developing country with a lot of potential both technologically and economically, Choy said when explaining his choice to intern overseas.

If they want to build a career in Southeast Asia in the future, students need to have a clear understanding of businesses and markets in the region.

“Overseas internships will help me obtain a lot of useful things that are essential for my future orientation,” Choy said.

Yang Yihan, a student majoring in data science and economics at the NUS Faculty of Science, added that besides choosing a country for their internships, students will also have to select a company whose lines of business are suitable for their majors.

Huynh Van Hoa Hiep, CEO of AIVision, revealed that the firm offers VND5 million (US$200) to each of the Singaporean interns every month.

However, Hiep asserted that it is not the money but the opportunity to practice professional skills and gain practical work experience that has motivated the Singaporean students to intern at the company.

In recent years, IVS Joint Stock Company, a software company in District 3, has received many international interns, mostly from Japan.

Among them, many come from famous schools including Kyoto University, the Kyoto Institute of Technology, and others, said Pham Thanh Huu, director of IVS.

With an internship term ranging from three months to a year, the interns have practiced in different positions from sales assistant to engineer.

"Japanese students are very active and often do not worry much about whether the assigned work aligns with their majors," Huu commented.

"This is quite different from Vietnamese students who prefer to engage in tasks that are relevant to their fields of study."

For many Japanese students, when assigned tasks outside of what they have learned in school, they still accept them and strive to perform well to gain experience, Huu stated.

"In general, international students have contributed their time and efforts to IVS’s projects," he added.

"To attract international interns, every company needs to have international connections.

"For example, we have activities connecting with universities and associations in Japan, which serve as bridges for international students to come to us for their internships."

Le Nhat Quang, director of the Innovative Entrepreneurship Center under the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City, said that some universities in Singapore often integrate overseas internship courses into their training programs.

These courses will be offered either in developed countries, such as the U.S., Australia, and European nations, or in Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Quang said.

NUS, NTU, and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) now have connections with the center and many startups here to arrange for Singaporean students to have internships in Vietnam, he added.     

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