During 2-8 December 2022, The Vietnam Association for Non-Public Preschool Education (VANPPE) hosted a team of MBA students, from the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College and Abroader, under their Community Deep Dive program in Vietnam.
In this program, Tuck MBA students helped VANPPE with fact finding interviews, results of which will become basis for the Association to form actionable ideas for their Activity Planning for the year 2023, working towards the aim of enhancing the standard of early childhood education serving industrial and export processing zones in the north of Vietnam.
A report by IFC in 2020 suggests: “…There is a clear business case for employers in Vietnam to support the care responsibilities of their employees. Business benefits documented in this report include improved recruitment and retention outcomes, reduced absenteeism, higher employee performance, and productivity, enhanced corporate reputation, and improved worker-management relations. The exact nature of the business benefits associated with employer-supported care varies according to the sector and type of support offered. In the manufacturing sector, firms that offer enhanced support for childcare—such as investing in onsite or nearby kindergartens—report that this helps them recruit and retain workers in challenging labor-market conditions. It also strengthens its sustainability credentials with international brands by demonstrating its commitment to worker welfare. By contrast, in the banking sector, companies are typically more focused on how flexible working arrangements for office-based staff can help attract top talent and build a female leadership pipeline.”
Affordable childcare has always been an issue for workers in industrial zones of Vietnam, most notably because of the sheer demographics in these areas; the migrant natures of many workers; low salary that limits the working mother’s choice of daycare for her child. The Vietnam Association for Nonpublic Preschool Education aims to continue the public discussion around the issue and facilitates the partnership among different players (employers, local government, especially), to make low-cost, affordable childcare accessible even to a number of localities at a time, given current uncertainties in many low-cost, labor-intensive industries like garment and footwear.
Allison Paul, the Tuck MBA student team leader working with VANPPE, reflected on her work with VANPPE and partner organizations: “We feel so lucky to work on such an impactful project and we are grateful for your trust in us. This week, we learned so much about the childcare system in Vietnam, the structure of the industrial zones, the value of education and much more about the culture of Vietnam. We hope we’ve provided some helpful direction forward. We are taking many personal learnings away from this project. Thanks to all of you who spent many hours setting up interviews and designing an excellent project for us to engage in, we feel lucky to have worked on it.”
In the words of the Program coordinator: “The program is a great opportunity for the students to learn about the rapid development with challenges for the Vietnam economy and society, an eye opening at the current situation of childcare, especially at the industrial zone in the Northern area. The students are inspired by organizations like VANPPE who are working hard for social development, in particular to the children in Vietnam.”
