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ARCHIVES IN VIETNAM
АРХЕОН год. 2, бр. 2 (2019): 75–81.
Dr Vu Thi Phung1
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Vietnam National University (Hanoi) University of Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty of Archival Studies and Office Management Vietnam
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UDC 930.25:004(597.3) UDC 005.96(597.3)
Summary: Along with the inevitable development trend of science and technology development, the 4.0 Industrial Revolution has brought about dramatic changes on a global scale, especially in the activities of creating, circulating, storing and extracting information, including information from archives. In this context, the building an E-government towards a digital government and the digital economy has been a major goal which the Government of Vietnam has paid attention to and determined to accelerate its implementation. It means in the near future, most of the management and transactions between agencies, organisations and individuals will be performed electronically. The result of this change will lead to the creation and proliferation of electronic archives. To manage and promote the value of those electronic archives, Vietnam needs human resources. However, in recent years, the issue of training human resources for digital archives has not met the demand. This article analyses the needs and identify key solutions for training human resources for the development of digital archives in Vietnam and the prospects of cooperating with other countries to train human resources for digital archives.
Keywords: training, human resources, digital archives, Vietnam2
1. Trends in the development of digital archive in Vietnam and the need
for human resources
Developing E-government is an inevitable trend, a popular model of many countries today, including Vietnam. In 2015, the Vietnamese Government issued the first
1 Ву Ти Фунг, Вијетнамски национални универзитет (Ханој), Универзитет друштвених и хуманистичких наука, Факултет за архивистику и канцеларијско пословање, Вијетнам 2 This article is a product of the research project ‘QG-16-46’ funded by Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Resolution on this issue and emphasised the importance of “promoting the development of e-Government, improving the quality and performance of State agencies, and serving the people and businesses better and better”1. Recently, the Prime Minister pushed for expediting the sending and receipt of electronic documents between agencies in the state administrative system and emphasised that the government and ministries and agencies must take the lead in implementing ‘paperless’ governance in Vietnam.
In the trend of E-government development, most paper-based documents will turn into electronic documents and form electronic databases and records to be archived. In addition, many state agencies in Vietnam are now digitalising archives to meet the needs for information retrieval and reducing the cost of preserving paper documents. This is an inevitable trend. Therefore, to respond to the new trends and new requirements, it is necessary to have well-qualified human resources, capable of undertaking the management of electronic documents at agencies, organisations and businesses.
However, recent studies have shown that the current force of civil servants, archivists and archival officers in agencies and organisations has not yet met the requirements set out for managing documents when implementing E-government and promoting digital archives. Survey results on the level of readiness for e-government at state agencies conducted by the Center for Science and Technology of Archives in 2017 pointed out that the biggest limitation of civil servants and archival officials is now information technology skills. In contrast, human resources trained in information technology are not properly trained in archival skills and expertise. Meanwhile, in order to manage documents and electronic archives, there is a need for the combination of both skills, i.e. archival and IT skills. This is one of the causes leading to inadequacies in the management of electronic documents and documents in Vietnam today. Survey results on the creation and management of electronic documents at state agencies conducted by the Center for Science and Technology of Archives in 2017 also indicated that most of the softwares currently in use did not have the function to integrate documents into records, or other archival features such as collecting, determining the preservation date, extraction, and destruction of documents, etc. Meanwhile, the human resources of archives currently working in state agencies in Vietnam have been trained with skills to deal with paper-based documents. Research results by Le Van Nang (2012) and Le Quan (2016)2 both indicated that the current human resources have not met the requirements set forth for the management and implementation of digital archives3 .
Currently and in the coming time, the issue of managing electronic archives is identified as one of the key tasks of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Vietnam State Department of Records and Archives, in the context of establishing and operating E-government and Digital Government in Vietnam. Therefore, in 2019, Vietnam
Human Resource Training for the Development of Digital Archives in Vietnam
State Department of Records and Archives was tasked with developing and implementing the Project of electronic document management in state agencies. The project is designed to facilitate the transition from traditional archives to electronic archives, in which the issue of training human resources to meet the requirements of digital archives is identified as a top-priority.
2. Some solutions for training human resources for digital archives in
Vietnam
In order to provide human resources to meet the requirements of digital archive development, in the coming time, Vietnam State Department of Records and Archives in collaboration with training institutions in archival studies will implement the following solutions:
Solution 1: Identify the demand for human resource for digital archive in Vietnam
In order to develop a training strategy and plan, the authorities need to identify specific requirements for human resources to meet the need for implementation of digital archives, including the following: a) Quantity; b) Professional qualifications; c) Information technology and foreign language skills; d) Professional ethics; e) Other requirements (if any).
Each of the above requirements should be described in details, with clear criteria that training institutions can build on to design their curricula and employing agencies can build on to recruit new staff and evaluate their performance.
Solution 2: Survey and evaluate the current situation of human resources
The assessment of the current situation of human resources of agencies and organisations according to the requirements of digital archive development will indicate the factors that have met, have partially met, and have not yet met the requirements. This survey will be conducted in all state management agencies and archival document managing agencies (from central to local levels) in order to provide practical evidence for the development of regulations and training plans as well as reasonable and accurate training budget estimation.
Solution 3: Short-term training abroad on Digital Archives
In order to have experts to advise and help the State and the Ministry of Home Affairs to implement the goal of Digital Archives, an urgent need is to send officials to take short-term training in Digital Archive abroad. This will also help build a team of experts to train future lecturers for a forthcoming formal training programme specialising in Digital Archive
To implement this solution, the state should plan to send a number of qualified officials, with Master’s degree or higher, and meet the requirements of foreign languages and information technology, to developed countries to study short term programmes on Digital Archives. Study time can be from 3 months or 1 year. These people should be chosen from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Vietnam State Department of Records and Archives, or lecturers of from tertiary education institutions. After finishing their studies, they will come back and advise the Government, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and Vietnam State Department of Records and Archives on the issues that need to be implemented in Digital Archives. They will also serve as instructors in digital archives in training institutions.
Solution 4: collaborate with foreign countries in short-term training
Along with solution 3, it is also necessary to invite foreign experts on Digital Archives to Vietnam to run short-term training courses for Vietnamese archival officials. Currently many countries in the world such as Russia, USA, Germany, UK, Australia, Italy, South Korea, etc. have implemented and achieved remarkable successes in implementing E-government and Digital Archives. Inviting experts from these countries will help Vietnamese archivists access advanced perspectives, methods, and update new requirements. If foreign experts can be invited to deliver shortterm courses, Vietnam will be able to quickly form a new group of qualified archival officers with sufficient knowledge and skills of Digital Archive, who can quickly deploy assigned tasks.
Solution 5: Establish an undergraduate training program on Digital Archives
If solutions 3 and 4 are urgent and immediate, the development of an undergraduate training program on Digital Archives is intended for long-term goals. Over the past half century (from the 1960s to present), with practical support from several countries, including the Soviet Union (formerly) and the Russia (now), Vietnam is among very few countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia to become “self-reliant” in training archival human resources. As a result, in addition to a few archival officials trained abroad (including the former Soviet Union and a number of other countries),
Human Resource Training for the Development of Digital Archives in Vietnam
Vietnam has trained thousands of archival officers by itself. Vietnam’s archival training system now offers a wide range of certificates and degrees, from technical secondary school to PhD. This is an important foundation for implementing long-term training solutions. In the near future (about the next 3-5 years), when the E-government is widely deployed and electronic transactions and electronic documents become popular, Vietnam needs a large and highly qualified human resource for Digital Archives. Therefore, an undergraduate training programme is the most fundamental solution. This solution needs to follow two steps: * Step 1. Develop Digital Archives as a mandatory course in current undergraduate programmes of archival training * Step 2. Develop an independent undergraduate training programme on Digital Archives.
Solution 6: Training officials on digital archives
Along with immediate and long-term solutions, the issues that need attention and regular implementation are the training to improve the professional skills and expertise of digital archive for currently employed civil servants, officials and archival staff throughout the country. Currently, some agencies and businesses have organised short training courses (from 3-5 days) on records and archival work, including contents related to Digital Archives. However, within such short amount of time, participants only get a brief introduction to Digital Archives. They therefore only manage to get a preliminary idea of what digital archives means, and are not fully equipped to carry out complex tasks of digital archiving that has been and will be required in the coming time.
Therefore, agencies need to organise more training courses to train and improve the professional expertise on digital archives for civil servants, officials and those directly involved in the work of archives nationwide. These training courses must be held from 05 to 10 days, with hands-on practical sessions, discussions and field visits. Training programs should be formulated into a common framework so that agencies have grounds to apply, implement and be appraised by authorities.
3. Ability and prospects of cooperation with countries in training human
resources to meet the requirements of digital archive in Vietnam.
In order to implement the above solutions, Vietnam needs to cooperate and seek for support from countries where digital archives have long been developed.
Over the years, digital archives has been a thriving field in many countries around the world. Therefore, the need to train human resources to meet the
requirements of digital archive development in Vietnam will open up opportunities for cooperation between Vietnam and other countries, through the following forms: • Vietnam send officers to these countries for short-term training (3 to 12 months); • Vietnam invites experts from those countries to teach and provide guidance on human resource training for digital archives, and to cooperate with Vietnamese agencies to hold academic workshops on digital archives; • Sharing experiences in establishing undergraduate training programmes on digital archive; • Vietnam invites international expert to participate in training and retraining of Digital Archive for Vietnamese officials and employees; • Sharing information, documents and research materials on digital archives. Hopefully, the above solutions will soon help Vietnam develop the human resources to meet the requirements of Digital Archive development.
REFERENCES:
1. Le Van Nang (2012). “Researching data standards in creating, using and storing specification data with electronic archives”, Ministry-level scientific topic, Code ĐT.14/21. 2. Le Quan (2016). Framework for leadership of public sector management.
Vietnam, Vietnam National University - Hanoi Publising. 3. Resolution No. 36a/ NQ-CP of October 14, 2015 of the Government on building E-government. 4. The project “Managing electronic documents in state agencies” of Vietnam
State Department of Records and Archives (2019).
Ву Ти Фунг
ОБУЧАВАЊЕ ЉУДСКИХ РЕСУРСА ЗА УНАПРЕЂЕЊЕ ДИГИТАЛНИХ АРХИВА У ВИЈЕТНАМУ
Сажетак: Упоредо са неминовним трендом развоја науке и технологије, Четврта индустријска револуција је довела до драматичних промена на глобалном нивоу, посебно у активностима стварања, преношења, складиштења и издвајања информација, укључујући информације из архива. У том контексту, изградња електронске управе ка дигиталној управи и дигиталној економији представљала је главни циљ којем је влада
Human Resource Training for the Development of Digital Archives in Vietnam
Вијетнама посветила пажњу и одлучила да убрза његову имплементацију. То значи да ће се у будућности највећи део управљања и трансакција између агенција, организација и појединаца обављати електронским путем. Резултат ове промене довешће до стварања и ширења електронских архива. Како би управљао електронским архивима и промовисао њихову важност, Вијетнам би претходно требало да створи одговарајуће људске ресурсе. Међутим, последњих година феномен обуке људских ресурса за дигиталне архиве није задовољио потражњу. У овом чланку су анализиране потребе и идентификована кључна решења за обуку људских ресурса за развој дигиталних архива у Вијетнаму, као и изгледи за сарадњу са другим земљама на обуци људских ресурса за дигиталне архиве.
Кључне речи: обука, људски ресурси, дигитални архив, Вијетнам
