In order to heighten the quality of vocational training, the country will focus on enhancing training for teachers at vocational institutions in 2012, one official has said.

Nguyen Tien Dung, Director of the General Department of Vocational Training 

Nguyen Tien Dung, Director of the General Department of Vocational Training, emphasised the importance of the task in an interview with DTiNews about the country’s high-quality human resource training plan through 2020.

In your opinion, what needs to be done to comprehensively renovate vocational training?

I think that due attention should be paid to heightening the quality of training. However, great efforts must be made in order to expand vocational training as well.

Under the Government’s human resource training planning, by 2020 the country will have 40 high-quality vocational training schools, of which around 12 institutions could meet international standards.

How can this plan be implemented?

We’ve started a programme to train high-quality human resources. This year, due attention will be paid to heightening technical assistance by intensifying the training of teachers at vocational training schools.

We’ve prepared nearly 30 training programmes for teachers at vocational institutions with a hope that the trainees will meet national standards for vocational teachers. Currently, there are five universities that could train vocational teachers based on these standards.

The country targets to train teachers who will meet national standards for vocational training in 107 occupations, regional standards for 49 careers, and international standards for 26 industries.

We are piloting 14 programmes to train teachers to implement vocational training in 107 careers.

In order to realise plans to train teachers to a regional standard, we will heighten co-operation with our Malaysian partners.

Training will focus on both hard and soft skills for teachers. To date, we have sent 96 teachers to Malaysia for training in auto technology, industrial electricity, electronics and welding.

We will send around 1,000 more teachers to this country for training during this year.

We also need assistance and co-operation from international experts from countries like Germany, South Korea and the US to train teachers to an international standard.

If so, are we training ‘engineers’ into ‘workers’, aren’t we?

It’s right to some extent. Most of teachers subjected to these training programmes are from vocational training colleges and universities. It’s vital that a teacher needs to be equipped with wielding skills in order to train skilful wielding workers. In 2012, contests for skilful teachers will not only focus on theory but also their practical skills.

What do you think about the co-operation between Malaysia’s Segi and Vietnam’s AIC groups? They are two pioneers in bilateral join training programmes for vocational teachers.

We hope that Vietnam can learn much from its vocational training co-operation with Malaysia. We’ve studied training programmes in Thailand and Indonesia and compared them with those in Malaysia. Actually, Malaysia is the most successful in realising vocational training models in the UK and Australia. Vietnam may be on par with Malaysia in terms of vocational training in the next 10 years.