Final lesson: Identify the causes, find appropriate solutions.

(Baonghean)It can be affirmed that career counseling, helping students choose a field of study that suits their abilities and the actual needs of the locality and society after graduating from high school, is very important. However, to date, the quality and effectiveness of vocational training and career guidance in schools throughout the province still face many concerns.

Students learn practical sewing skills at the Nghe An Vocational Training and Technical Center.

In our province, the Provincial Vocational Training and Career Guidance Center (under the Department of Education and Training) is responsible for providing vocational training and career counseling to students in junior and senior high schools in Vinh City. The Center teaches the following vocational skills: applied informatics, culinary arts, technical drawing, household electricity, knitting, hand embroidery, and artistic flower arranging. In the 2012-2013 school year, the Center provided vocational training to 3,215 students from 21 junior high schools and 7 senior high schools; career counseling to 616 students; and academic guidance to 572 students. Funding for vocational training activities comes from student contributions, with junior high school students contributing 54,000 VND and senior high school students contributing 84,000 VND.

According to the results of the annual vocational training exams, over 99% of students studying at the center achieved a grade of "good" or higher, with over 80% achieving an "excellent" grade. Ms. Tran Thi Kim Chung, Director of the Center, stated: “In reality, vocational guidance currently does not receive adequate attention from the education sector in general and schools in particular. With the current level of contributions, it is very difficult to ensure the effective implementation of theoretical teaching, practical training, and field trips for students as required by the program. For example, at our center, only in 2010 did we manage to organize a field trip to the Vietnam-Germany Vocational College. After that, field trips have been replaced by watching videos and presentations about the activities of vocational training centers and production facilities, thus failing to create interest or a clearer understanding of vocational training for the students. Most students study just to pass exams and gain extra points (from 0.5 to 2 points) for graduation and transfer exams.”

While this is the situation in cities, vocational guidance in rural and mountainous areas faces even more challenges. Previously, the province had seven districts with comprehensive technical and vocational guidance centers under the Department of Education that coordinated vocational training for students. In recent years, these centers have merged with district-level vocational training centers to form vocational training and guidance centers. However, the facilities of these centers are still very limited, only partially fulfilling the requirements for vocational training for rural laborers as stipulated in Prime Minister's Decision 1956, while vocational training for high school students is entirely left to high schools. Due to limited vocational training capacity, schools only teach a few trades such as computer science, household electricity, and agriculture, with low effectiveness. Mr. Hoang Manh Nhan, Principal of Dien Chau 2 High School, said: “In recent years, the school has only offered courses in one vocational field: Applied Informatics. While we know that not all students are interested in this field, at least the school can utilize the existing computer labs and teachers. For other subjects, the teachers can only teach theory, and we lack the equipment and materials for practical exercises, so the school cannot offer them.”

Since 2011, Nghe An has been one of only two provinces nationwide to receive support from the Flemish Development and Technical Assistance Organization (VVOB) of Belgium for a project to innovate career guidance in secondary schools. To date, the project has organized 33 training courses for 1,382 homeroom teachers and youth group leaders from junior and senior high schools in the province, helping them grasp general career guidance theories and develop career counseling skills for students.

At the Center for General Technical and Vocational Training, over the years, career counseling software has been applied to career guidance and admissions work. Students in need of counseling can take computer-based tests of their natural and social abilities, and based on these tests, career counselors can provide appropriate advice on choosing schools and majors. Ms. Truong Thi Thanh Huong, Deputy Director of the Center in charge of career guidance, said: “Career counseling is a system of psychological and educational measures aimed at assessing the overall physical and intellectual capabilities of young people, comparing those capabilities with the requirements of professions or occupational groups for workers, considering the human resource needs of the locality and society. Based on this, they are given scientifically-based advice on career choices, eliminating cases of chance or immaturity in career selection. Therefore, this activity requires teachers to have extensive practical knowledge of various professions in society and many fields, good presentation skills, and the ability to understand student psychology... However, in the past, the number of students receiving career counseling at the center has not been high (500-600 students annually). The reasons are that many students and parents still choose careers based on trends and emotions; and the team of teachers working in career guidance is still small (4-6). (person), while in one session, if the full procedure is followed, only 1-2 students can be advised.”

According to Mr. Hoang Quoc Khanh, a specialist in career guidance education at the Department of General Education (Department of Education and Training), career guidance activities for university admissions are currently not receiving adequate attention from many high schools in the province. Most career guidance teachers in schools are part-time teachers; some schools assign it to civics teachers, some to homeroom teachers, and some to teachers of subjects with insufficient teaching hours… resulting in low effectiveness. Some admissions and career guidance counseling activities, conducted by schools in collaboration with professional education institutions, are carried out too close to the time when students are preparing to submit their university and college applications, leaving many students insufficient time to think and make informed choices. Furthermore, during these counseling sessions, questions only revolve around which majors and universities offer the highest chance of admission, without much discussion of the specifics of those fields of study. In fact, there are quite a few cases where admissions counseling is more of a marketing, promotional, or student recruitment effort…

Thus, one of the reasons why career guidance for students in our province is still ineffective, leading to a prolonged shortage of skilled workers, especially a lack of skilled labor, is partly due to inadequate career guidance and streaming at the junior and senior high school levels. Discussing this issue, Mr. Vo Van Mai – Head of the General Education Department, Department of Education and Training, said: “In the coming time, we will continue to leverage the support of the VVOB Project to further enhance the career counseling capacity of teachers working in career guidance at junior and senior high schools in the province. In addition, we will direct schools to strengthen links with vocational training institutions to organize practical training and increase vocational skills for students, helping them gain a more comprehensive understanding of vocational training; and select training institutions suitable to the students' characteristics to organize enrollment counseling, helping them make appropriate choices.”

Furthermore, it is necessary to review the current vocational school system and the system of universities and colleges in our province. Although Nghe An is one of the provinces with the largest vocational school system in the country, with 62 vocational training institutions, including: 5 vocational colleges (3 local, 2 central), 8 vocational schools, 35 vocational training centers, and 14 vocational training facilities (of which 37 are public and 25 are private), the quality is uneven, mainly concentrated in Vinh City. Vocational schools in mountainous districts and rural areas have limited facilities, outdated curricula, and do not meet the needs of learners and the local area. Even in schools with proper investment, there is still much overlap in training programs between schools, and there are no high-tech vocational fields to meet market demands. The quality of teachers in some vocational schools is low and uneven, and a reluctance to innovate teaching methods, coupled with the widespread practice of "teaching without practical application," is prevalent.

According to Mr. Nguyen Bang Toan, Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, in order to achieve the goal of increasing the percentage of trained workers to 52% by 2015 and over 70% by 2020 as stipulated in the Resolution of the 17th Congress of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee (2011-2015), the province needs to improve mechanisms, policies and state management of vocational training, especially policies for vocational learners, trained workers, and policies for businesses participating in vocational training; build and plan the development of a network of vocational training facilities in the province for the period (2011-2020) in accordance with the requirements of human resource training, especially technical worker training facilities; focus on investing in building a system of high-quality schools that meet national, regional and international standards, meeting the demand for technical labor for key economic sectors, industrial parks, export processing zones, and the export of expert labor. Expanding the scale and improving the quality of vocational training in rural areas and ethnic minority regions; applying advanced technology to teaching; expanding domestic and international labor markets;…

Quan - Ha