Vietnam - Singapore Education Cooperation: Many Effective Models

To improve the education quality and help Vietnam catch up with regional and international countries, gaining experience from countries with proven successes in education and socio-economic development is absolutely essential. Thus, Vietnam has launched many programmes to expand education development cooperation with countries with developed education, including Singapore - a very important partner. With its experience, Singapore has actively supported and assisted Vietnam in education and training; thus, deepening their friendship. The following are exemplary education cooperation models that demonstrate effective and sustained cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore.

The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), founded in 1956, is Singapore’s oldest not-for-profit professional institute for lifelong learning. During its history, MDIS has maintained its dedication to professionals through the provision of well-accredited courses, seminars and management services.

 

To create the most favourable conditions for students, MDIS continuously invests and improves the quality of facilities, training programmes and supporting students. Since 1996, MDIS officially founded the MDIS Education Development Foundation with the objectives of supporting needy and deserving students and disabilities who have financial difficulties in pursuing their education. Since then, MDIS has awarded many self-help groups and needed individuals as well. In 2009 alone, MDIS has granted nearly US$450,000 for this activity. So far, MDIS and its MDIS Study Assist Fund have granted scholarships worth US$3.2 million.

 

The success of MDIS’ graduates is attributed to the institute’s strong commitment to high quality standards of education. Apart from its head office in Singapore, MDIS also has representative offices in China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. At present, MDIS has some 14,000 students, including nearly 5,000 international students from over 55 countries in the world. As it operates on non-profit purpose, MDIS has made significant contributions to the community development in Singapore and regional countries, including Vietnam. With many practical programmes, MDIS has helped train thousands of Vietnamese students as well as established close links with education institutions and universities in Vietnam. In 2009, MDIS has granted 10 scholarships worth SG$1,000 to Vietnamese students to accredit their study achievements. In August 2009, MDIS also awarded 108 scholarships valued at VND60 million for excellent students who have financial difficulties to pursue their education at 18 high schools in Can Tho, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

The Vietnam-Singapore Centre for Educational Excellence (VSCEE) is the result of close and sustainable cooperation between the governments of Vietnam and Singapore, between Vietnam’s the Ministry of Education and Training and Singapore’s Ministry of Education, between Vietnam’s National Institute of Education Management (NIEM) and Singapore’s National Institute of Education (NIE). The centre has an initial investment capital of US$2 million, sponsored by the Temasek Foundation of Singapore.

 

VSCEE strives to bring the best practices into training of leaders in education. The centre focuses on leadership training for school principals and professional development for educational administrators.

VSCEE’s training programmes for Vietnamese educational leaders are built on successful programmes used for training Singaporean leaders of education. These programmes have been used to train top-notched excellent professional educational leaders for Singaporean schools in the past years.

 

In Vietnam, the main training contents of VSCEE include three programmes: improving the capacity of school leadership at high schools, postgraduate training and English training. All three programmes are carried out in association with Singapore’s National Institute of Education. In 2008, VSCEE trained 150 country-levelled lecturers, 128 province/city-levelled consultants and supervisors, 330 province/city-levelled principals, 1,920 high school principals and an Education Management Master training course for Vietnam. In 2009 and 2010, the centre will train 14,000 high school principals in Vietnam.

Vietnam - Singapore Vocational College was founded in 1997 under an education cooperation project between the governments of Vietnam and Singapore. Particularly, the Government of Vietnam is responsible for infrastructure, personnel recruitment and regular operating expenses while the Government of Singapore is answerable for supplying training programmes, equipment and machines, organising trainers’ capacity improvement courses in Singapore, and sending experienced experts to jointly operate the college. The Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) is liable for supporting administrative costs.

 

At present, the college has two modern establishments. The first one was upgraded from Binh Duong Industrial School built on an area of seven hectares and the second one was upgraded from Vietnam - Singapore Technical Training Centre built on an area of four hectares.

 

Vietnam - Singapore Vocational College has attested its prestige in vocational training in Vietnam and received high appreciations from international companies for graduated students’ quality and working behaviours. At present, with the support of training programmes and equipment from the Government of Singapore, each year, the school recruits some 840 students for college level and 2,700 students for lower levels. The school has made considerable contributions to the manpower supply for industrial parks in Binh Duong province in particular and in Vietnam in general.