IoT is currently being determined as one of the highly rewarding departments that are in need of a high amount of manpower. This fairly pristine field of study has already been open for enrolment in several universities such as Ha Noi University of Science and Technology, FPT University, Electric Power University, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology,...

“Thirsting” for advanced IoT manpower

The rapid advancement of science and technology has given rise to many newly founded professions, those of which include IoT - Internet of Things. Although being a fairly young field of study, IoT has proven itself to be full of potentials for human resources development.

According to the “Future occupations” report conducted by the World Economic Forum published in 2018, 85% of the interviewed companies answered that they were capable or already had expanded big data analyzation for their clients. They also disclosed that technologies like IoT, software and websites market, ecloud,...had been invested on a similar scale.

Furthermore, the statistics of Forbes showed that one quick search on LinkedIn - a social media platform for employment - could come up with more than 11 000 results related to IoT. 

        

Information Technology students of FPT University during one practical session (Source: FPT Education)

It is obvious that IoT is no longer an occupation for the future but instead being one for the present. With high demand, the labour market of IoT promises rapid expansion for the upcoming years.

In addition to quantity, the salary for pursuing work in IoT is rather significant.  According to the survey of payscale.com, the annual salary of IoT engineers have the highest growth rate in the field of Information Technology. In the U.S, one IoT engineer is estimated to make at least 110.000 USD per year, 49.000 USD in England and 62.000 USD in Germany.

In Vietnam, from 2017 until now, the phrase “Internet of Things” has always been mentioned in science conferences,  economic forums or talk shows. A number of leading technological corporations had already executed their first step in IoT development.  

In October 2018, during the statement in the conference and convention of Vietnam’s Smart IoT with the topic of “Realizing the potentials and manifesting the IoT market of Vietnam”, the minister of the Ministry of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed: “Basically, the strategy for Vietnam until 2020 is for every household to have one optical fibre cable, for every citizen to have a smartphone  and wide 5G infrastructure coverage, prioritizing IoT first. Until then, Vietnam will become one of the few countries that ensure IoT infrastructure.”

In order to make that dream become a reality, Vietnam would need a tremendous amount of IoT engineers. However, as a young major, IoT lacks educational institutions. That is the reason why the market is still “thirsting” for high-level manpower. 

Where to study IoT?

Based on rudimental statistics, there are currently a few universities that had organized and educate majors related to IoT such as Ha Noi University of Science and Technology, FPT University, Electric Power University, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology,...

In addition to that, the 2019 university admission report stated that Ha Noi University of Science and Technology, one of the top universities that educate ICT has made smart embedded system and IoT as 1 of 7 new training programs. The institution has also revealed that with the recent trend leaning towards a digitized economy, Japan’s labour market has recently spiked in the need of high-level manpower in the field of electronic design, especially in the embedded system and IoT. That is the reason why the new smart embedded system and IoT program was made to orient towards meeting the requirements for working in Japan or Japanese companies in Vietnam.

For FPT University, 2019 is also the first year of accepting IoT admissions. As stated by the president of FPT University Dr Le Truong Tung, the main objective in opening the new majors, those of which included IoT is to create an educational environment for the Digital Students that could satisfy the demand for manpower of Vietnam and the world.

Recently, FPT University has announced its admission policy and are giving out 50%-100% scholarships. Examinees that have interests in the IoT major of FPT University could find more information on the school’s official website.

The representative of FPT University commented that by implementing foreign curriculums, they could overcome most problems immediately in the first year. Those programs had been endorsed by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the requirements for software engineering training courses of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET - U.S) and Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA).

These courses were specifically built upon the foundation of realistic projects. Students have the chance to practice directly connected devices, providing them with the most practical environment suitable for full comprehension and accumulating experience. Many lecturers of the program were specifically trained in America, Japan, Singapore,...

Furthermore, FPT University also encompasses advantages that are absent in similar universities: The institution was built upon the foundation of one technologically advanced corporation, resulting in a regularly updated curriculum and opportunities for students to interact with real workplace environments. 

 

English is also used as the language of the program, preparing the students with advantages to finding employment from both domestic and international companies.  

After graduation, the students would become engineers and experts on IoT, having the ability to develop smart home projects, smart city, health services, finances,...

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