Australia is looking to step up its cooperation with Vietnam in vocational education and training (VET) and to build a bridge between schools of the two countries, said an executive of Australia’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Nguyen Thanh Minh (R), president of Saigon Entrepreneur Club, chats with Colin Walters (C) and another member of the Australian delegation at a reception in HCMC last week

“We are looking at the way for better collaboration and how Australian colleges can work for the benefit of students at Vietnamese colleges,” Colin Walters, group manager for international at the department, told the Daily before leaving Vietnam over the weekend.

Walters led a delegation to Vietnam for a week-long trip, with an emphasis on enhancing the collaboration on VET. He said his delegation had reached some important agreements with Government agencies during this first mission of its kind to this country.

“We have established good links between universities. We want to do the same with vocation training to have much better collaboration and interchange students,” Walters said.

Vietnam wanted VET cooperation with Australia to cover forestry, aquaculture and agriculture. But, Walters saw the opportunity beyond these industries and in the sectors where Australia had a strong advantage.

“I think across the whole economy areas like tourism where Vietnam must meet world standards if it wants people from America, Europe and Australia to come back a second time for their holidays in Vietnam, they need to have good experience in the first time,” Walters said. “I mean the hotels and restaurants here have to be of top standard. We can give top standard training and so that is a kind of thing we can collaborate on.”

According to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office, the country attracted more than 218,000 Australian visitors last year and nearly 167,000 in the first seven months of in 2010. The January-July figure recorded a strong increase of 28.6% over the same period last year.

Walters said Australian colleges were able to help develop curricula and teaching methods as well as provide advice on teachers and development of the Australian system to meet the requirements of employers and teach the students what they need to succeed in their work.

Walters noted both vocational and university education was important because people got decrees from universities and better skills to work from VET colleges. As a growing economy like Vietnam needs people at all levels and all social skills, it is very important to make sure that people can get proper education and training in and throughout their life.

The Australian consul general in HCMC, Graeme Swift, told a reception held for the Australian delegation last week that vocation was a very important part of Vietnam’s education and that more skilled workers should be trained for different industries in Vietnam.

Australia was one of the leaders in vocational education and would help Vietnam in this area, Swift said. He emphasized that skilled employees were those who had the skills to do jobs rather than having a decree and no skills.

Australia has attracted 25,000 Vietnamese students to its both vocational and university courses. Every year, roughly 6,000 fresh Vietnamese students go to that country for further education.

“We are certainly looking at the opportunity for more Vietnamese students to study in Australia. We hope to see many more people from Vietnam to come to Australia to study, run businesses as well as for tourism,” Walters said.