Each year, the labour market in Vietnam welcomes 1.5 million young workers. However, only a very small proportion of this labour has received vocational training, leading to lower labour productivity compared to other countries in the region, affecting the general competitiveness of the economy.
Training associated with business
The strategy for social and economic development in the 2011 - 2020 period and the request to restructure the economy toward the innovation-led growth model to improve quality require Vietnam’s vocational training to innovate and create breakthroughs in the quality of vocational training. But finance is a not easily solved problem. Nguyen Ngoc Phi, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said: There is a paradox that the cost for a plumber training course is 18 million VND / person but the student must only pay the tuition of more than 4 million / course. Good quality requires equipment investment for teaching and training. But in difficult economic circumstances, it is a burden to the State.
The weakness in the training of Vietnam is that the cooperation with businesses has not been done well. Vietnamese enterprises are relatively inactive in the training process with vocational schools, while in Germany, enterprises pay 80 percent of the cost of vocational training. Therefore, mechanisms must be put in place to reduce this burden is to encourage collaboration between businesses and the State. Enterprises are authorised to perform training through associations so businesses can participate in the training programs and reach professional standards in accordance with the actual needs of enterprises. The training facility will only complement and supplement the theoretical information, while practical skills are mainly provided by the enterprises.
Training in accordance with the needs of the market is a general trend, which is an effective training model being followed in all the developed countries, in order to create sustainable employment. To do this, the role of the enterprise is very important. In traditional training models, those who have been trained by vocational schools need to be re-trained by businesses later. The story is now different: training by order. Vocational training facilities are ordered by enterprises. Socialisation will reduce the burden for the State. Thus, the cost will be reduced with higher training effectiveness. However, the perception of the businesses needs changing; that is, investments in training will surely be profitable for them in the future. More businesses need to "open the door", they should not wait until graduating trainees for a period of 4 - 8 weeks to practice in their businesses, but right from the start in school, students should take 20 – 30 percent of the time trained in business.
International cooperation to make a breakthrough
By 2015 ASEAN countries will become one community, with commonly recognised professional skills. To accomplish this goal, along with the mobilisation of domestic resources, strengthening international cooperation is indispensable.
Currently, Vietnam is building comprehensive cooperation on vocational training with Germany, including consultancy on vocational training development, vocational laws; key vocational training cooperation programmes and corporate training models. For years, the German government sponsored financial and technical support through the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the German Bank for Reconstruction (KfW) to upgrade Vietnam's labour force.
Speaking at the recent Regional Conference on training in Vietnam, Hans Jurgen Beerfeltz, the State Secretary of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation said: "The German government will continue to support Vietnam in training to achieve the millennium goals and poverty reduction goals. This is the strategic key area that the German side will support in Vietnam. In the next five years. We have an agreement worth about € 23.5 million dedicated to this programme, which includes funding for high-quality vocational training centres."
Mr Hort Sommer, a representative of the German Development Cooperation said: Cooperation between businesses and training programmes in Vietnam is still very weak. Practical training in vocational schools does not provide trainees the knowledge that business apprenticeships do. We need to equip vocational schools with the same machinery and equipment as used in enterprises, rather than importing a programme from another countries and then applying stereotypes on vocational training in our country. We will cooperate and support appropriate jobs for Vietnam on the way of modernization of the country, as well as those areas where Germany has advantages, such as mechanical engineering, industrial electronics, mechatronics and automation chemical.
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