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Apr 2, 2013

Myanmar - Singapore to help Myanmar set up vocational training institute

NAYPYIDAW, MYANMAR: Singapore will help Myanmar set up a vocational training institute in Yangon.

This is part of Singapore's efforts to support Myanmar in its economic development.

President Tony Tan Keng Yam announced this on Monday.

Dr Tan, who is in Myanmar for a 5-day state visit, said a skilled workforce in Myanmar will serve as a growth engine for the country.

The new vocational training institute will help educate and equip the workforce in Myanmar will skills such as hospitality, engineering and facility management.

Also on Monday, Dr Tan met President Thein Sein for about an hour at a closed-door session. The two last met when President Thein Sein visited Singapore in January last year.

Dr Tan also met opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the chairperson for the National League for Democracy.

Earlier Myanmar held a ceremonial welcome for Dr Tan at the presidential palace.

Dr Tan and his delegation will head to Mandalay and Yangon next.

- CNA/ir

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Nov 23, 2012

Vietnam - Vulnerable vocational schools losing students to universities

HA NOI – This year vocational training schools are facing declining enrolment numbers due to fierce competition from universities, who are opening their own vocational schools and extending the enrolment season in order to attract more students, the General Department of Vocational Training has said.

There are more than 450 vocational schools, and nearly 900 centres with more than 800 training courses. It was expected that 1.9 million students would enrol at these institutions in 2012. However, the impact of university enrolment policies has meant that this figure has reached only 1.1 million so far this year, about 60 per cent of the target.

According to Pham Vu Minh, office manager of the department, universities have an unfair competitive advantage as they offer qualifications - such as bachelor diplomas - that are more prestigious for employers.

Minh also recognised that vocational training schools have not been efficient in spreading information about the education and benefits they offer. "Schools and relevant agencies should enhance their communication with students graduating from high schools and secondary schools in order to give them some career direction. Otherwise we will end up with a situation of having too many teachers and too few students," he said. A 2010 survey from the Viet Nam Institute of Educational Sciences (VNIES), showed that 85 per cent of students graduating from high school wanted to study long-term courses at a university; with 56 per cent willing to re-take college exams the following year if it was necessary for them to enrol into this kind of higher education. Only 8 per cent said they were seriously considering a vocational training programme.

This year, the deadline for university enrolment has been extended until December 11, giving many students the opportunity to wait for their final exam results and make a decision about their future. Statistics show that vocational school is often their last choice.

Tong Minh Ha, a student at the Vocational Phu Chau College, said "I could not pass the university entrance examination, I had to choose this school because I don't want to be unemployed in the future."

The vice-headmaster of Phu Chau Vocational Training, Cao Gia Nuc, has confirmed that the vocational centres (which operate in the northern provinces of Thai Binh and Lao Cai, as well as in Ha Noi and HCM City) are struggling. "We have enrolled only around 300 students, which is about 40 per cent of the number we were hoping for this year. We are facing many difficulties."

As the school is privately run, it does not get any financial support from the state budget. With the number of paying students low, there is a lack of money available for investment in building facilities, student activities, and the building of professional programmes to entice students in the future.

Nuc said these private schools would be more effective with some government support.

Mac Van Tien, director of the National Institute for Vocational Training under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that vocational schools must focus on acquiring investment. He acknowledged that improving the quality of vocational training was the requirement of both business and society.

He added that while currently more than 70 per cent of students graduating from vocational schools found work or were able to become self-employed, continued innovation and improvement were needed to raise standards even higher, allowing graduates to meet the increasing demands of businesses and the labour market.

Tien called for the Government to support vocational schools more strongly by creating policies and framework to help them secure investment and thrive.

VNA

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Nov 7, 2012

Singapore - Singapore making progress in technical, vocational education

SINGAPORE: The Institute of Technical Education's (ITE) 10-Year Master Plan will soon be completed with the opening of the new ITE College Central in January 2013.

But the work in Singapore's technical and vocational education sectors is far from over, said Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Teo Chee Hean, when he opened the Singapore International Technical and Vocational Education Conference.

Speaking at the inaugural conference, Mr Teo, who was involved with the development of these sectors in the 1990s when he was Education Minister, said such training has provided Singaporeans with the skills needed to secure good jobs.

Mr Teo said: "Education is a forward-looking enterprise. It seeks to prepare our youths for a society and economy that will only exist fifteen to twenty years in the future. A good understanding of the key forces driving future trends will therefore allow us to anticipate the competencies that we need to develop in our youths."

But Mr Teo said while Singapore has made good progress in technical and vocational education aspects, work is far from over.

That is because over time, industry demands have evolved as the structure of the economy changed from labour intensive to skill-intensive industries, and now, increasingly becoming innovation-intensive.

Mr Teo said: "Partnerships with industry are becoming increasingly important. With the rapid advance of technology, more and more jobs are being created in new and emerging economic sectors. Start-ups and smaller companies will also offer new and exciting jobs, to complement larger companies and organisations. The models adopted by our institutions have successfully blended theory and practice, but we must always keep an eye on the horizon and stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments.

"For our youths to succeed in tomorrow's world, they will also need greater adaptability and a stronger ability to collaborate with others, including a good measure of cross-cultural intelligence that will enable them to work across boundaries, languages and cultures. They will also need to build up multi-disciplinary knowledge, new media literacy and a total product or total service design mindset."

Today, nearly forty per cent of each graduating secondary school cohort enters the technical and vocational education training centres to further their education.

Upon completing their studies, nearly 92 per cent of them gained employment within six months.

Also, 92 per cent of employers affirmed that these graduates possessed not just the requisite skills, but also good work attitudes.

Mr Teo explained, "This has helped to keep Singapore's youth unemployment rate low, relative to other parts of the world. In 2011, the average unemployment rate of residents aged 15 to 24 in Singapore was 6.7 per cent. In comparison, the global youth unemployment rate was 12.6 per cent, almost double the rate in Singapore.

"Youth unemployment in Singapore was also lower than most advanced Western and East Asian economies, including the United States (17 per cent), the United Kingdom (21 per cent), Germany (8.5 per cent), Hong Kong (9.3 per cent), South Korea (9.6 per cent) and Taiwan (13 per cent). Our focus in TVET has thus been to provide students with a holistic education, to equip them with both industry-relevant training as well as 21st century competencies."

Mr Teo said as the economy transforms, Singaporeans will increasingly be seizing growth opportunities in regional and international settings.

A key component of holistic education at the ITE and Polytechnics has been the community and global education programmes, which include student exchanges, work attachments, community service, and sports and cultural events.

Through these programmes, students are exposed to global trends and developments, and learn to better appreciate cultural diversity and different work practices.

They also internalised values such as respect, responsibility, care and appreciation for others which help students to become socially responsible people.

One conference speaker from an adult learning institute in Melbourne, Australia, said polytechnics and ITEs play important roles in the economy.

"There is a lot of research that has shown that graduates that come through get employability straight away and not only employability, they get income that enables them to participate socially and economically in communities," said John Maddock, chief executive officer at Box Hill Institute (Australia).

For the first time, ITE and the five Polytechnics have joined hands with Temasek Foundation, to organise the Singapore International Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Conference 2012.

The four-day conference, which includes sharing sessions and conducted tours of local technical and vocational training institutions, will see more than 400 delegates from Singapore and all over the world gaining insights and learning points.

- CNA/fa

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Oct 31, 2012

Vietnam - Teachers grappling with low salaries at vocational schools

Teachers at Ho Chi Minh City vocational schools are struggling with low pay, with many having quit their job and others taking on extra work to survive.

One of such teachers, Doan Hong Hai Van who is teaching at Eastern Saigon Vocational School, says her teaching salary accounts for over one-third of the monthly income whereas making clothes at home covers the rest.

Hoang Oanh, in charge of cake baking and cooking at The Hospitality School of Ho Chi Minh City, complains she has to teach at many other schools to make ends meet because it is impossible to live on her meager salary.

“I can’t do nothing but resort to side jobs as my salary is not enough for living,” Oanh said. “Some of my colleagues have been working for companies on the side for the same reason.”

The teacher reveals she once received an offer to be a chef in a hotel that was willing to pay her triple the current salary.

“I know that many other teachers also got similar offers,” she says. “In that way only those who deeply love teaching would stay in their career.”

School academic affairs vice chief Nguyen Thi My Hanh admits that she always looks for teachers since it has a high turnover.

“The main reason for their leaving is salary,” Hanh says.

Low numbers of students should take the blame, school officials have said.

Truong Minh Tuan, academic affairs chief at a vocational center in District 11, says that it cannot pay teachers better because tuition fails to help it afford more generous remuneration packages.

“Merely 1,000 students enroll in our courses each year,” Tuan says, “so the collection of tuition from them cannot ensure a more proper salary policy for the teachers.”

TUOI TRE

Oct 14, 2012

Vietnam - Vietnam’s vocation training quality lowest in region

VietNamNet Bridge – The quality of vocational trainings in Vietnam is the lowest among regional countries and has yet to meet the market’s demand, an official said at a seminar on Wednesday.

Besides, the working skill gap between Vietnamese laborers and foreign ones is still big, said Nguyen Tien Dung, director of the General Department of Vocational Training at a regional meeting held on Wednesday in Hanoi City.

Vietnam’s vocational training network has been expanded much over the past time, raising the rate of laborers receiving training courses to 32%. There is around one million laborers in rural areas having taken training to work for industries, services or modern agriculture.

However, the vocational training is not suitable and does not meet the human resource demand of each industry and locality, and what is needed is a close connection between vocational schools and enterprises, Dung said.

According to experts at the meeting, in order to increase the vocational training quality, trainings on working practice should be moved from schools to enterprises.

Meanwhile, others proposed that instead of State agencies alone assuming the task of vocational training, enterprises should participate in building national criteria for vocational skills.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan stressed that the Government always cared for and strived to increase the competitiveness of Vietnam’s laborers. Nhan also agreed that providing training based on the market’s demand is an effective approach which facilitates the study and adaptability of laborers.

VietNamNet/SGT

Sep 11, 2012

Vietnam - Vocational schools get crushed by universities when scrambling for students

VietNamNet Bridge – Universities continue enrolling students for vocational training, ignoring the request by the Ministry of Education and Training MOET to stop providing career training.

MOET has told universities to gradually scale down the vocational training before they completely stop this kind of training in 2017. However, a lot of schools do not intend to reduce the number of students enrolled for vocational training, which is called the “bread earner” of the schools.

Especially, a lot of schools have even enrolled more students in 2012, ignoring the decision by the watchdog agency, thus pushing vocational schools, which have been sitting idle due to the lack of students, against the wall.

The movement of universities enrolling students for vocational training was triggered some years ago. It was simply because schools tried to enroll more students to obtain higher income.

However, universities have been violently criticized by the educators and vocational schools, who believe that universities should focus on providing university education, while vocational training should be the job of vocational schools.

Pham Nhu Nghe, a senior official of MOET, has also affirmed that a vocational school must not exist in a university, while one must not use the name of the university to enroll students for the schools belonging to the universities.

The current Education Law also stipulates that universities are the schools that provide university (4-year) and junior college (3-year) training, not vocational training.

There is one more reason that makes vocational angry: Universities, with their advantages, can easily enroll students for vocational training, thus leaving no more students for vocational schools to enroll.

Students have been told that if they follow vocational training at universities, they would be able to pass credits and follow the university education at the same universities. Therefore, applying for studying at vocational schools is not the choice of the majority of students, who fail the university entrance exams.

MOET, who sides with vocational schools, in December 2011 released the circular No. 57, stipulating that universities cannot enroll students for vocational training.

The legal document then brought a high hope to vocational schools that they would have many students to enroll. However, MOET, in unexpected move, in June 2012 amended the circular dated in December 2011, saying that universities would not have to stop vocational training immediately. The schools can step by step reduce the number of vocational training students before they completely stop the training by 2017.

The decision by MOET has raised the strong opposition from people, who believe that the decision comes contrary to the 2005 Education Law and the University Education Law which has just been enacted. An educator has said that the inconsistency of MOET has put big difficulties for vocational schools.

Meanwhile, universities do not intend to scale down the vocational training. Three months after the Circular No. 57 was released, the Ton Duc Thang University upgraded its vocational training division into the vocational school belonging to Ton Duc Thang University. Especially, the vocational school has been enrolling students under the name of Ton Duc Thang University.

To date, the vocational school has called on 1465 students and it would only finish the enrolment season until the end of October 15. Meanwhile, it only got the quota of enrolling 1200 students for vocational training this year.

On the signboard of the Gia Dinh Economics and Technology School, there is the logo of the Nguyen Tat Thanh University, which shows that the school is a subsidiary of the university. The school announced that it would enroll 4000 students this year.

Compiled by Thu Uyen

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Aug 30, 2012

Singapore - Education expert warns against "over-vocationalising" university education

SINGAPORE: Education expert Professor S. Gopinathan has cautioned against "over-vocationalising" university education in Singapore.

He was commenting on the government's move to diversify the university sector with more applied degree programmes that have close ties with industry.

Professor Gopinathan, an adjunct professor at the SIM University (UniSIM), was speaking to Channel NewsAsia on the sidelines of an education conference organised by international publisher Marshall Cavendish.

"As a nation, we've always been concerned to make sure that school graduates, university graduates are employable," Professor Gopinathan said. "We've always tended to say, relevance, relevance, relevance!"

But he asked: "But in the 21st century knowledge economy and society, what is relevant? How do we know what will be relevant?

"How do we ensure that a broad base of 21st century skills and competencies are something that students will fine-hone and get at university?"

Professor Gopinathan believes that while there is a place skill and for understanding what skills will be required, "there's also a place for broadening of one's exposure to the knowledge base, to the knowledge and skills that are and should be available through a university education."

The challenge, he said, is how university education can remain relevant to a future that is uncertain.

While graduates' employability is important, he said it should not be over-emphasised.

- CNA/wm/xq

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Jul 17, 2012

Vietnam - Vocational schools make pitch to students, parents

VietNamNet Bridge – Vocational high schools in HCM City are counselling students in choosing courses based on their skills and labour market needs, and persuading parents that they can send their children to these schools without jeopardising their prospects of later going to university, a city official said.

Pham Ngoc Thanh, deputy director of the Department of Education and Training, said they are coaxing people against forcing children who failed to get into public high schools to study subjects in vogue like information technology (IT).

The Ben Thanh Vocational High School counselled a number of students, who were confused about their future because they did not know where their skills lay, in the last two months, just ahead of the high school entrance exams two weeks ago.

It has provided them with information about its training courses and the labour market.

This year State-owned high schools have received an overwhelming 76,500 applications while they can take in only 59,000. The rest necessarily have to go to private and vocational high schools, the department said.

Vocational high schools have to fill in more than 2,800 places and have started to aggressively promote their courses at junior high schools and encourage school staff to discuss their educational and training options.

Nguyen Thi Anh, a ninth grader in Tan Phu District, and her friends attended a vocational counselling programme at Ben Thanh last month.

She said: "A closer relationship between students, schools, and employers would help young people improve their knowledge of what to study and the labour market.

"I hope educational authorities will provide more support to develop a better education and career counselling and guidance system at secondary schools and vocational training centres."

Thanh said the Government has in place new policies to support students studying in vocational high schools.

After three-and-a-half or four years of studies at these schools, students can go on to sit college and university entrance exams, he said.

The city plans to build ot upgrade five vocational high schools in Districts 2, 10, Binh Tan, Binh Chanh, and Thu Duc this year.

New vocational high schools opened in Nha Be and Binh Thanh Districts will enrol students starting this year.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

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Apr 25, 2012

Vietnam - Tuition exemption policy cannot help attract students to pedagogical schools

VietNamNet Bridge – Students nowadays do not want to study at pedagogical schools to become teachers, even though they do not have to pay tuitions for university study.

Students turn their backs to pedagogical schools

In 1998, the government released a decision on exempting tuitions for pedagogical schools in an effort to attract more students to the schools and produce qualified teachers for the future. At that time, pedagogical schools became the choice of many high school graduates.

The number of high school graduates registering to attend the entrance exams to the HCM City University of Education jumped from 22,539 students in 1998 to 29,725 in 1999 and then to 41,235 students in 2000.

With the number of examinees to the schools was numerous, pedagogical schools required very high learning records from students. In 1999, students could enroll in the mathematics faculty of the school if they got 20 marks from the university entrance exams. Meanwhile, they needed to obtain 22 marks in 2002 and 24 marks in 2004.

Nevertheless, the number of students who want to study at pedagogical schools has been decreasing in recent years. Only 15,000 students attended the exams to the HCM City University of Education in 2010. Especially, the school had to seek learners from the students, who failed the exams to other schools and accepted to study at the education school as their second choice.

In 2011, students just needed to obtain 13 or 14 marks from the national entrance exams to be able to enroll in the pedagogical majors of the Dong Thap, An Giang, Can Tho and Tay Bac Universities.

Nguyen Anh Duc, Head of the Students’ Affairs Division of the HCM City University for Technical Education, said every year, the Ministry of Education and Training allows the school to enroll 400 students who can enjoy the tuition exemption. However, the number of students following pedagogical studies has been low, just nearly equal to the allocated quota.

Ta Quang Lam, Head of the Training Division of the HCM City University for Education has noted that the tuition exemption policy now cannot help attract students to pedagogical schools any more.

Commitments can be broken easily

The inter-ministerial circular of the Ministries of Education and Training and Finance--clearly stipulates that students can be exemption from tuitions only if they commit to serve in the education and training sector after they finish schools. The students, who make commitments before entering schools, but do not serve in the education sector after the graduation, will have to pay the sums of money there are exempted for the study at the schools.

Nevertheless, the regulation does not have much significance. No student has been asked to reimburse the tuitions so far, even though a lot of students break their commitments after the graduation.

A survey at the HCM City University of Technical Education has shown that only 10 percent of the school graduates work in the education and training sector, including the students who cannot enjoy the tuition exemption.

Duc said that a lot of local vocational schools want to employ the bachelors graduating from the university. However, the graduates do not want to take the jobs, because they do not want to work in remote areas, get low salaries, while they cannot see the opportunities to follow studies at higher levels.

Meanwhile, Tran Thi Chuc from the Saigon University said it’s impossible to request students to reimburse money, because graduates do not get assigned works because the city’s education department does not have the demand. As students have to look for jobs themselves, they would not pay back tuitions.

Source: Tien phong

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Apr 2, 2012

Thailand - Thailand to clean air-conditioners nationwide

Vocational students will help Thailand save electricity by helping to clean 8,000 air conditioners at government agencies in 76 provinces.

The Vocational Education Commission and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) last week signed an agreement to run this project.

Sombat Saengsawangsajjakul, deputy secretarygeneral of the agency, said it wants the students to practice their skills and offer assistance to help the nation reduce energy consumption.

The agency has assigned 76 vocational schools in 76 provinces to clean air conditioners at government offices, including hospitals and city halls in those provinces, while Egat will provide the funds to operate this project.

Cleaning air conditioners every six months can decrease electricity consumption by 10 per cent.

Thailand has 7 million air conditioners and if all of them are cleaned, it will save 2 billion units of electricity or 6 billion baht (US$194.4 million) and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million tonnes per year.

News Desk

The Nation

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Mar 9, 2012

Vietnam - PM promotes more vocational training

VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung affirmed yesterday, March 8, that the development of education and vocational training was one of the most important policies for Viet Nam's transition to an industrial country by 2020.

He made the statement at a meeting held to gather expert opinions on draft strategies for education and training, and vocational training development policies in the 2011-2020 period.

The vocational training sector aims to increase the number of trained labourers to 40 per cent of the workforce by 2015 and 55 per cent by 2020, equivalent to 23.5 million and 34.4 million people, respectively.

About 9.6 million labourers would be trained during the 2011-15 period and an additional 12.9 million would receive training from 2016-20. About 190 vocational colleges with 51,000 lecturers will be ready to train new labourers by 2015.

The draft strategy for vocational training chalked out nine solutions to reach these targets. Three of the targets, including renewing State management over vocational training, developing a network of vocational training schools and developing quality assurance measures, were considered the key elements.

At the meeting, some experts said that apart from the three key solutions as mentioned, the connection between vocational schools, labour markets and entrepreneurs should be clarified to assure labourers could meet needs.

Others said that enlarging vocational training models, improving infrastructure and techniques for vocational centres by mobilising different investment sources and increasing the ability of these centres should be included in the strategy.

For the draft education and training strategy, experts said it should solidify solutions to improve morale among teaching staff, enhance investment sources and develop a specific roadmap for examinations, especially university entrance examinations.

In response to these opinions, PM Dung said the development of education and training and vocational training must result in a skilled labour force to meet the demand of key economic sectors and serve the nation's economic restructuring.

He instructed the ministries of Education and Training, and Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to adjust and complete the draft strategies soon.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Centre to help farmers

Coffee farmers in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong will be able to obtain international certification, improve their capacity and increase their incomes with support from a new vocational training centre that opened on Wednesday.

Located in the Bao Loc town, the centre was put into operation by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector funding arm of the World Bank, in collaboration with the ECOM group, one of the biggest coffee corporations in the world.

Equipped with a modern laboratory and information on updated sustainable agricultural development models, the centre aims to train around 4,000 local farmers in the next three years.

IFC and ECOM have already set up vocational training centres for farmers in several major coffee production areas around the world, starting from central America in 2007.

"The centre will help us to attain better quality for coffee as well as improve the living standards of farmers," said Jean Christopher Mani, an ECOM representative.

"IFC and ECOM share the same concerns - to strengthen links between farmers and the global coffee supply chain to boost Viet Nam's coffee industry," said Simon Andrews, IFC director for Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam.

It is expected that around 50,000 coffee households, who are not yet customers of ECOM, will indirectly benefit from technical and financial documents at the centre, as well as market and pricing information that it disseminates.

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Mar 5, 2012

Vietnam - Universities still plead with MOET to let them keep vocational training

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has instructed universities not to enroll students for the vocational training (2-year training). However, a lot of universities still try to retain the training level.

Still asking for quotas

The HCM City University of Technical Education has announced that it is enrolling 500 students for the six vocational training majors.

Deputy President of the school Do Van Dung said that in previous years, the number of vocational training students was counted in the total number of the school. However, as MOET has decided that universities are not allowed to enroll students for vocational training, the school has assigned the school of engineering practice, a unit of the school, to take care for the enrolment.

The Hong Bang International University, a people founded school, has announced the plan to enroll 450 students for the vocational training level this year. An officer of the school said the school is receiving applications, and that students would start their study in the first phase on March 25, and the second phase on April 29.

When asked why the school continues enrolling students for the vocational training in 2012, the officer said that the school still has not used up the quota allocated for 2011; therefore, it plans to use the 2011’s quota this year.

A lot of universities have asked MOET to retail the vocational training and they are anxiously awaiting the ministry’s decision. Nguyen Xuan Hoan, Deputy President of the HCM City Industry University, said that the school has asked for the permission to continue enrolling 5000 students, the same with last year’s.

Hoan said that the school cannot respond to emergency if the MOET tells it to stop the vocational training immediately.

Phan Thai Son, Deputy Head of the Training Division of the HCM City Food Industry University, said that the predecessor of the school was a vocational school. Therefore, the number of vocational training students accounts for 1/3 of the total students of the school, and if the school has to stop the training, it would suffer heavily.

Son said he hopes MOET would consider the current conditions of the school and allow the school to enroll 1000 students in 2012.

Lecturers will become redundant?

Nguyen Thi Mai Binh, Head of the Training Division of the Hung Vuong people founded University, said that the school had 400-500 new vocational training students every year in the previous years. Now with the new decision, the school will have to cut some jobs, which means that vocational training lecturers would become redundant.

Nguyen Xuan Hoan from the HCM City Industry University, also said in previous years, the school enrolled 5000 students for vocational training every year, and that the school has hundreds of lecturers running the classes.

“Where the lecturers would go, if the school cannot maintain the training?” he questioned, adding that a lot of teaching aids would be thrown away, which is really a big waste.

Pham Thai Son has also expressed his worry about the fate of the vocational training lecturers, saying that the 100 lecturers still do not know what they would do, while they are incapable enough to teach at the university level.

Dung has admitted that this is a reasonable decision to ask universities to focus on the university training. However, he thinks that the watchdog agency needs to give schools the time long enough for schools to get adapted to the new circumstances.

Especially, the universities which have been upgraded from vocational schools would face big difficulties if they cannot enroll students for the training level any longer.

Source: NLD

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Jan 13, 2012

Vietnam - Nearly 600,000 workers to get vocational training

Vietnam is expected to provide vocational training for nearly 600,000 rural workers in 2012, with at least 70 percent of them being employed after the training.

The target was set at the national online conference chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan in Hanoi on Jan. 11, to review the two-year implementation of a project on offering vocational training for rural workers and launch tasks for 2012.

The event also set a target of continuing to enhance capacity for vocational establishments and expanding pilot models in localities.

Over the past two years, nearly 800,000 rural workers in 54 cities and provinces have received vocational training and over 70 percent of them have found jobs.

However, the training has yet to be in line with the local socio-economic development plans and businesses’ demand for labourers.

Nhan said that vocational training for rural workers should be combined with the socio-economic development plan in each locality and action plan of each socio-political organisation.

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Vietnam - Universities grappling with vocational resources after ministry ban

A ministry ban on vocational courses at higher education institutions has left local universities facing a waste of facilities and lecturers they had been using only for these courses.

The Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry complains that it has no clue how to deal with the specialized tools and personnel of the school’s vocational training curricula after the Ministry of Education and Training prohibited universities from running occupational courses alongside traditional undergraduate and graduate programs from the next school year onwards.

A school official says it has many teachers who specialize in teaching vocational courses, so finding work for them after the ban will be a challenge.

They can, technically speaking, teach at the junior college levels, but it is going to take them a long time to get used to the new teaching methods, the official says.

He adds that the labs and other tools the school bought to teach its cooking programs will likely be left unused in the future.

Nguyen Xuan Hoan, vice president of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, says the school has suffered from the same problem.

“We are struggling to find other jobs for over 400 vocational teachers, since it is impossible for us to lay them off,” Hoa elaborates.

The same number of vocational teachers at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, based in the city, may be jobless as well, school president Nguyen Manh Hung says.

Ly Thi Phuong Hoa, of the Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University, says the prohibition has also made redundant many teachers of its vocational branch.

Many universities are thus considering establishing separate vocational schools to continue offering the forbidden courses, and make use of their available facilities and teachers.

The Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry’s vice president, for instance, said the school would set up an independent vocational subsidiary to prevent a waste of facilities and personnel.

The HCMC-based Ton Duc Thang University will also establish a vocational branch in the central city of Nha Trang, according to a school management official.

An Giang University, which is located in the Mekong Delta, is going to found its own comprehensive occupational branch, vice president Hoang Xuan Quang said.

But all of this is just a Band-Aid solution, university officials admitted, adding that they will gradually stop offering vocational courses in the future.

The education supervisory body recently announced the ban following complaints by vocational schools that they were unable to compete with universities, which were also offering professional courses.

Dr Ly Van Xuan, head of academic affairs at the Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University, warned of a lack of human resources for the health sector after his school had been banned from running vocational courses, many of which could be found at very few other schools.

In the same fashion, Dr Nguyen Dinh Tuan, president of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, said the country would probably face a shortage of manpower for certain sectors following its shutdown of vocational courses.

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