From June 18 to June 21, 2025, the Center for Adaptive Capacity Building Research Vietnam (CAB Vietnam), in collaboration with the Danang Union of Science and Technology Associations and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Vietnam, organized the training course “Sustainable Development Skills for Students in the Context of Industry 4.0.” The training welcomed 28 selected students from various provinces and cities across the country.
During the 4-day training, students gained essential knowledge and practical skills such as teamwork, problem analysis, and inspirational storytelling. These tools enabled participants from different universities to collaborate effectively in teams to draft plans for communication products focused on Decent Work and Sustainable Development.
Through group assignments, students had the opportunity to practice and refine their communication and team leadership skills. These capabilities not only enabled effective collaboration during the 4 days of in-person training but also laid a solid foundation for their upcoming two-month online work process.
In addition to course activities, students visited an agricultural cooperative and a manufacturing company specializing in adhesives and coated abrasives in Da Nang. During these visits, they applied their teamwork skills to distribute tasks and collect information efficiently. Based on observations during the two field trips and the detailed reports submitted afterward, the organizers highly appreciated the teams’ skills in observing, listening, and asking targeted questions to gather information. Furthermore, the program featured thematic sharing sessions on “Gender in Sustainable Development” and “Human Resources in the Era of Industry 4.0” delivered by two experienced speakers based in Da Nang. Beyond the formal presentations, students made full use of their break times to engage in deeper discussions with both guest speakers.
At the end of the course, four student teams presented their communication product proposals, including “AI RIGHT,” “Skills as Weapons, Law as Shield,” “Green Skills and Youth,” and “Hybrid Working in the 4.0 Era.” The teams made great efforts to convince the organizers regarding the core problem they aimed to address, their target objectives, key messages for their audiences, and work allocation to ensure product completion by the end of July. Through this process, significant growth was evident in the students after just over three days: from teamwork, problem analysis, communication conceptualization, in-depth interviewing, conflict resolution, active listening, and inspirational storytelling, to becoming noticeably more open, confident, and joyful in their interactions.
Nevertheless, the teams also received valuable feedback from the organizers to adjust their plans appropriately. Recommendations included clarifying the practical issue the communication product aims to resolve, ensuring the message empowers the target audience to take necessary action for change, and building plans based on the team’s actual capacity including time, current skills, and existing understanding.
The organizers from CAB and FES Vietnam express our sincere gratitude to all the students who actively participated in building this training class. We believe that the knowledge and experiences gained will help you finalize your communication products for the upcoming Youth and Decent Work Forum in August and support you in finding a decent job in the future.
