In the the 21 st century higher education, ICT skills are considered as a basic requirement to achieve digital literacy, which is an undeniable key competence of students for being futur workers. There are many models for measuring and assessing ICT skills, digital literacy or other related competences on over the world. This article arms to combine some of them, the most important and compatible, for designing a preliminary Vietnamese practical model of digital literacy. Our studies were realized in four programs of Vietnamese universities that were assessed by the ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) from 2009 to 2014. The survey's results were analyzed by 'semi-exploratory approach' then compared with other studies in Vietnam and over the world. Our suggested '3 factors, 8 items' model seems to be compatible with the most well-known international models of information literacy, which is a core component of the digital literacy in particuliar, and of the lifelong learning competencies in general. Citation: Nguyen Tan Dai, & Marquet P. (2019). The digital capability of students for social needs: Research on a preliminary applied model in Vietnam. Review of Social Sciences Ho Chi Minh City, 249(5), 24-38. [Fulltext in Vietnamese]