On October 8, Sai Gon Giai Phong (SGGP) Newspaper held a ceremony to announce and launch the first “SGGP Accompanies Young People in Choosing Majors and Building Careers” program for the 2026-2027 academic year, bringing together career guidance, admissions, and employment support as part of a journey to accompany young people.
The program was held at the SGGP Newspaper headquarters at 432-436 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, Ban Co Ward, Ho Chi Minh City. It aims to connect education management agencies, training institutions, experts, and businesses to support students in choosing fields of study and preparing for their future careers.
Attending the event were Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee’s Commission for Information and Education Tang Huu Phong, Director General of the Ho Chi Minh City Press and Radio-Television Agency Le Van Minh, and Director of the Southern Center for Education and Training Development under the Ministry of Education and Training Le Thang Loi, along with representatives of Ho Chi Minh City’s departments and agencies, Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City, higher education and college institutions, and businesses.
The “SGGP Accompanies Young People in Choosing Majors and Building Careers” program is built around three pillars, including career guidance, admissions, and employment connections. Together, these components form a continuous support journey under the message: “Choose the right major—Learn in the right direction—Build a solid career.”
Under the organizers’ plan, businesses will accompany the program throughout, helping provide information on job opportunities and recruitment requirements while connecting learners with employers. The program is also expected to organize a job fair, creating additional opportunities for students to learn about the labor market.
In his opening remarks, journalist Nguyen Khac Van, Deputy General Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Press and Radio-Television Agency, Editor-in-Chief of SGGP Newspaper, and Head of the program's Steering Committee, said SGGP Newspaper considers the initiative a key program demonstrating the Party newspaper’s responsibility to accompany the younger generation and contribute to developing human resources for the city and the country.
He said that a young person choosing the right field of study not only determines their own future but also contributes to shaping the quality of the workforce as a whole. Therefore, career guidance, admissions, and employment connections should be integrated into a unified framework.
The program is built around three pillars, including career guidance, admissions and employment connections, and accompanying young people from understanding themselves and choosing a field of study and school to entering the labor market and building their careers.
The ultimate goal of education and training should not simply be a degree but professional competencies, employment opportunities, and learners’ ability to contribute to society, journalist Nguyen Khac Van emphasized.
To achieve this goal, SGGP Newspaper hopes that educational institutions, businesses, experts, and relevant agencies will work together to build a substantive connectivity ecosystem. This would provide students and trainees with a reliable basis for making informed choices, bring training programs closer to practical needs, and help bring employment opportunities closer to graduates.
Journalist Nguyen Khac Van affirmed that accompanying young people means accompanying the future of the city and the country. Connecting education and training with employment would help address human-resource development challenges while reflecting the media’s responsibility to the community.
With the coordination of relevant organizations, SGGP Newspaper expects the program to deliver greater depth, connectivity, and long-term social value, laying the foundation for its continued implementation in the years ahead.
Dr. Tran Dinh Ly, Vice Rector of the University of Agriculture and Forestry, said the involvement of the business community in providing career guidance to students is of great importance, helping bridge information between labor-market demand and young workers.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Thuy, Head of the Admissions and Communications Office at Ho Chi Minh City University of Banking, said a distinction should be made between choosing a field of study and pursuing a career and building a career path. Career counseling should accompany young people throughout both their education and career-development journey.
To make the program more substantive, he proposed strengthening connections with high schools and students, enabling learners to access information to support their career choices. The counseling process should involve three groups of experts: psychologists and career-guidance specialists; experts familiar with university training programs; and representatives of employers.
This combination would give students a stronger basis for understanding themselves, gaining insight into fields of study and professional requirements, and ultimately determining a suitable career path.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Trung Dao, Vice Rector of the University of Finance and Marketing, praised the program for clearly defining its intended outcomes from the outset—helping young people choose a field of study and build their careers. On that basis, the program identifies its starting point as delivering the fastest and most accurate information to prospective students.
He said that as access to information becomes increasingly diverse and the education sector undergoes restructuring, admissions information is constantly changing. The key challenge, therefore, is ensuring that prospective students can access official admissions information as quickly as possible, in a clear and accessible form, and with sufficient credibility to help them make appropriate choices about their fields of study.
Mr. Phan Van Tam, Deputy General Director of Binh Dien Fertilizer Company, spoke highly of the program’s career-orientation objectives and said he was impressed by the theme “SGGP Accompanies Young People in Choosing Majors and Building Careers,” which reflects an approach of accompanying young people throughout their journey—from choosing a field of study to preparing for their careers and building their livelihoods.
He expressed his readiness to participate in and support the program in the coming period, while hoping that more businesses would join the initiative and help expand its activities to students in remote and disadvantaged areas.
Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, Nguyen Bao Quoc, said the most important aspect of a career guidance program is a systematic, continuous approach that delivers practical benefits to learners. He particularly praised the “SGGP Accompanies Young People in Choosing Majors and Building Careers” program for not only targeting high school students but also expanding career guidance to secondary students.
To broaden the program’s reach, he proposed strengthening communication through social media channels to quickly reach students at both lower secondary and high school levels.
Director of the Southern Center for Education and Training Development under the Ministry of Education and Training, Le Thang Loi, described the “SGGP Accompanies Young People in Choosing Majors and Building Careers” program as a practical initiative that meets the needs of young people and the requirements of human-resource development in the new period.
According to Mr. Le Thang Loi, technology, digital transformation, and changes in the labor market are creating new occupations while also changing the requirements for traditional professions. Workers need to possess professional knowledge and skills, digital competencies, soft skills, creativity, and the capacity for lifelong learning. Therefore, career guidance and admissions counseling need to provide accurate information, enabling students to make informed decisions about their futures.
On the occasion, the organizing committee presented program plaques and flowers in appreciation to participating educational institutions and partner businesses for their cooperation and support.
Director General of the Ho Chi Minh City Press and Radio-Television Agency Le Van Minh and journalist Nguyen Khac Van, Editor-in-Chief of SGGP Newspaper, presented the plaques and flowers to representatives of the participating organizations.
The cooperation among the media, educational institutions, and businesses is expected to create more opportunities for young people to access information on education and training, gain insights into real-world jobs, and prepare the competencies needed for their career journeys.
)
