U.S. Ambassador Marine visits US-funded IT program for people with disabilities

Hanoi July 6, 2007

U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Marine today visited the Information Technology Training Program for people with disabilities where 25 full-time and 80 part-time students are taking classes.

“Vietnam's rapid economic development creates a demand for highly skilled IT workers. I'd like to applaud the students for coming here to study and to encourage businesses to continue employing people with disabilities who will be valuable assets to their workforce,” Marine said.

The program is a cooperative effort between Catholic Relief Services-Vietnam and the Hanoi College of Information Technology, with funding support from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Officially launched on May 11, the program is based on a U.S. model at the Resource Center for the Handicapped Technical Institute in Seattle, Washington. It draws upon the expertise of Vietnamese-American IT specialist Dovan Do, and training experience of Catholic Relief Services and the Hanoi College of Information Technology to help young people with disabilities join Vietnam's growing IT sector.

Some 375 vision-, hearing- and mobility-impaired students are expected to study information technology in Vietnam’s first international-standard, computer-training program for students with disabilities. The program’s goal is to produce graduates who will be hired because of their technical skills, not their disabilities.