Barriers broken down in vocational training

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Hanoi College of Electro Mechanics (HCEM) is one of 45 training institutions that seeks to become a high-quality training school for Vietnam, approaching the advanced training level of the rest of the region and beyond.

The school already boasts many students who have achieved high results in national, ASEAN, and global vocational skills exams. It currently offers training for 20 professions, of which seven key occupations are covered according to high-quality international-standard programmes, with the number of high-quality labourers entering the market standing at over 1,000 people per year.

Despite possessing many achievements and experience in vocational training for more than 50 years, rector Dong Van Ngoc said that HCEM still faces many difficulties in enrolment, despite nowhere near reaching capacity.

“We invest in modern facilities that are not inferior to many leading universities in Vietnam. While universities specialise in research training, vocational training institutions like HCEM focus mainly on practical teaching, so the equipment and books in the classrooms are equipped just like businesses,” said Ngoc.

However, misconceptions about such training remain in this country. “The mindset that a good student must go to university, while vocational training is for students with difficult circumstances and low ability, has been deeply ingrained in the subconscious of many Vietnamese and is a pressing issue for educators,” Ngoc said.

Therefore, eliminating this prejudice and bringing the contributions of such programmes to the right position in the job market is an ongoing challenge for management agencies and establishments.

According to Nguyen Quoc Huy, rector of Bac Ninh College of Electrical Engineering and Construction, vocational education is often closely linked to the needs of businesses, from building programmes and organising training to arranging jobs after graduation. Therefore, most graduates in this type of education often get jobs immediately.

In the northern province of Bac Ninh, one of the localities with the highest concentration of industrial parks and foreign-invested enterprises in Vietnam, the average income of vocational students after graduation is about VND7 million ($300) per month. Students with good skills can reach an income of VND20 million ($870) per month.

“This level of income is commensurate with or even higher than that of many university graduates,” emphasised Huy. “We need to change our perspective, as it’s normal to study well but go on a vocational training course. Those who study well in the direction of skills development should go to such training.”

Vu Truong Giang, deputy chief of office at the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs, said that the effects of the pandemic still have a great impact on many areas of the job market, and that society’s perception of vocational training may be shifting as a result.

However, in order to achieve more development this year, Giang suggested that schools must connect with businesses to strengthen training orders, and integrate recruitment standards of enterprises into their ongoing courses. There must also be a focus on digital transformation skills.

“We want parents and students to understand that the vocational training ecosystem and other ecosystems are integrated with the goal of creating opportunities for all. Each student should base their decisions on qualifications, passions, and interests and choose the most suitable kind of training as an official path to access better and more sustainable job opportunities in the future,” he said.

Vocational education is increasingly proving effective when meeting the needs of employers and the labour market. According to statistics of the General Directorate of Vocational Training, there are around 670 professions and occupations at college level and almost 900 at intermediate level.

In which, about 80 per cent of graduates have had jobs suitable to their professions and training qualifications or created their own jobs, participating in most fields of the economy. The rate of rural labourers having jobs after training reached 89.3 per cent.

In some occupations such as mechatronics, telecommunications, logistics, tourism, and oil and gas, the vocational skills of Vietnamese workers meet the requirements of foreign-invested enterprises and can take on many complex job positions previously performed by overseas experts.

Unofficial reports from training institutions in Vietnam suggest that the enrolment rate last year at colleges was over 103 per cent, and at intermediate schools the rate reached 104 per cent. Continuing education and other forms may have seen enrolment of more than 10 per cent.

Vocational training not to be overshadowed by higher education Sharing about Malaysia's experiences in overcoming the middle-income trap, Datuk K. Yogeevaran Kumaraguru, former Secretary-General of the Ministry of Plantation Industry and Commodities, Malaysia said at the Vietnam Reform and Development Forum (VRDF) 2019 that Malaysia made a mistake by only focusing on higher education while forgetting vocational training, and cautioned Vietnam against making the same mistake.

Vocational schools, colleges expect 80 percent of graduates to find jobs More than 80 percent of graduates at most colleges and vocational training schools in HCM City this year have found jobs, according to the city’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.