Breakthrough in Vocational Training Policies Required

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan expressed his opinion during the conference, “In the midst of fierce competition in the international market, improving the quality of the workforce is given special attention by many nations, especially Vietnam. Therefore, in order to successfully integrate with other countries, the Vietnamese workforce needs to possess specific skills to meet the standard of the international and regional labour market. The vocational training program thus needs a thorough reform, from the perception to the management mechanism and the training process. In addition, Vietnam needs to learn and apply advanced vocational training models of other countries in the region and around the globe, which helps improve the quality of the local training program.” Apart from the in-depth analysis, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan also emphasises the urgent need for tighter cooperation among Vietnam, Germany and ASEAN countries to develop the vocational training programs, especially in areas which have bilateral and multilateral benefits such as allowing workers to move freely in the international and regional labour market and building a policy framework to recognise vocational skills of workers from different countries.

 

According to Molisa Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen, vocational training programs in Vietnam do have many shortcomings. More specifically, the quality of the workforce is rather low, leading to lower worker productivity compared to other ASEAN countries. This in a sense affects the competitiveness of the Vietnam’s economy. Therefore, in order to create a breakthrough in vocational training, Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen believes that Vietnam really needs support and cooperation from other countries and international agencies, especially Germany and other ASEAN countries. Accordingly, the main goal is to focus on activities such as improving the policy planning process, building the policy framework for vocational training, attracting ODA fund from donors to develop vocational training programs, working with businesses to develop higher quality workforce etc.

 

According to statistics, over the last few years, the vocational training facility network has expanded to boast an equal representation in every part of Vietnam. More specifically, as of late 2011, there were around 1,300 junior, mid-level vocational schools and centres together with other vocational training facilities, in which 136 are junior schools; 308 are mid-level schools; 10 vocational schools and 849 vocational training centres. Prior to 2006, only vocational schools and training centres could be seen. But the period after 2007 has seen the establishment of many mid-level and junior vocational schools thanks to the introduction of the Vocational Training Law. The number of non-state-owned vocational training facilities has a representation ratio of more than 35 percent. The scale upgrade has helped increase the ratio of workers going through training to 32 percent in 2011. Another statistics lends evidence to the fact that throughout a long period of time, the Government has issued many policies regarding the vocational training activities in particular and the creation of new jobs for workers in general. Nevertheless, there is currently 80 percent of the rural workforce who has not been through any basic vocational training classes. Furthermore, due to a high population growth rate, Vietnam has an additional one million workers who need vocational training every year. These abovementioned challenges make vocational training activities more problematic. For example, regarding the scale and quality of vocational training programs, the small number of teachers and instructors does not satisfy the real demand.

 

As Mr Hans – Jürgen Beerfeltz, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development proclaimed, “In order to afford a sustainable and balanced development for an economy as open as Vietnam’s, the Government and responsible agencies must rely on a quality and skilful workforce. Therefore, our cooperative vocational training program is among the popular exported services from Germany. This conference has achieved important milestones regarding set quality standard and cooperation in the region to strive towards a common labour market within ASEAN.”

 

Also according to the Molisa Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Phi, this conference is an important step forward to strengthen the cooperation between Vietnam and Germany and other ASEAN countries; and at the same time is a testament for the vocational training strategy to which Vietnam will subscribe in the 2011-2020 period. Cooperation in vocational training has long been the tradition between Vietnam and Germany and always on top of the agenda. The German Government has had many policies to support Vietnam to improve the quality and scale of the training program, Mr Phi said.

 

According to statistics from Molisa, there are currently ten ODA projects in the vocational training area sponsored by partners such as Asian Development Bank (ADB), Denmark, Korea, Germany etc. The biggest partner is Germany with €29 million and €9 million in reciprocal capital from Vietnam. According to the vocational training strategy in the 2011-2020 period, some requirements should be met, such as increasing the ratio of workers going through training to 40 percent, or 23.5 million workers in 2015 and 55 percent, or 34.4 million in 2020 respectively. In the 2011-2015 period, 2.1 million workers will be trained in junior or mid-level vocational schools. This number is expected to be 2.6 million in the 2016-2020 period. The expectation is that until 2020, there will be 230 junior vocational schools, 40 of which are high quality ones.