Opportunity to review vocational training

(Baonghean) - Every two years, the Provincial Vocational Teachers' Conference is held. Through this activity, vocational training staff can enhance experience exchange and improve their expertise and professionalism. This is also an activity to evaluate the actual teaching capacity of vocational training institutions.

Based on the selection of teachers with the best achievements from the grassroots level, the 2014 vocational teacher training conference had the participation of 51 teachers from 14 vocational training units with the following occupations: welding, handicrafts, information technology, engineering technology, mechanical engineering, automotive technology, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, fashion sewing, farming, tourism - hotel, road motor vehicle driving and veterinary husbandry.

Veterinary livestock lecture by Mr. Ho Van Binh - teacher of the Western Technical and Economic Vocational College.

This year's teaching competition has many new points from the number of lectures to the scoring and evaluation criteria. The number of lectures designed and built in the form of integrating both theory and practice accounts for a high proportion, over 80% (43/51 entries). This is considered a positive sign, because in reality, many vocational teachers in Nghe An are still hesitant to apply and are weak in integrated teaching ability. According to Ms. Ho Thi Chau Loan - Head of Vocational Training Department (Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs), this year, the lectures were drawn from the exam question bank instead of presenting a lecture that the teacher chose and practiced in advance as before, thanks to which, the capacity of the participating teachers can be more accurately assessed.

The evaluation of the lectures is conducted immediately after the teachers complete the demonstration to ensure objectivity and honesty. Moreover, in the composition of the Jury, in addition to teachers who are doctors, masters, excellent teachers with many years of teaching experience, rich knowledge of pedagogy from prestigious schools in the area such as Vinh University of Technical Education, Vietnam - Germany Vocational Technical College, etc., there are also experts from enterprises such as Phuong Dong Petroleum Tourism Joint Stock Company, Halotex Garment Joint Stock Company, etc. "With innovations, this year's teaching conference creates opportunities for teachers of subjects in vocational schools to demonstrate their teaching ability, at the same time learn and draw on many professional and pedagogical experiences from other schools. Thereby, improving the quality of vocational training in each school, contributing to improving the quality of vocational training in the whole province" - Ms. Ho Thi Chau Loan shared.

Participating in this lecture, Mr. Nguyen Trong Thang - Teacher of Vocational College No. 4 - Ministry of National Defense confided: "Through the activities at the lecture, I met young teachers who have flexible technology applications to innovate and improve the quality of vocational training. This is the supplement for us to draw experience, find useful vocational teaching methods...". Within the framework of the lecture, the lecture "Welding without bevel in standing position" by Mr. Thang was highly appreciated by the Jury and awarded the First Prize for its smooth and vivid application of theory and practice right in the lecture. Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai - Reception Management Teacher, Nghe An College of Tourism - Commerce, who won the Second Prize, said: "To make the lecture effective, I often exchange content with friends and colleagues, promptly supplement knowledge and skills, and complete the task of a vocational trainer well".

Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2014 Nghe An Province Excellent Vocational Teachers' Teaching Competition, Mr. Dang Cao Thang - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said: "The Vocational Teachers' Teaching Competition is a very necessary professional activity and has achieved many successes: The quality of the teaching competition is high and the organization is better than previous times. That shows the attention of schools in selecting teachers to participate. In particular, the teaching competition has created a useful and attractive playground for vocational teachers in the area, creating conditions for them to demonstrate their talents, exchange and learn from each other, improve their knowledge, professional qualifications, and promote the emulation movement of good teaching in vocational training institutions".

However, in addition to the achieved results, this excellent vocational teacher training conference still revealed some shortcomings and limitations that were frankly pointed out by the Organizing Committee. The whole province has 65 vocational training institutions, but only 14 units participated, which is a small number compared to the requirements. The units participating in the conference and achieving high results are concentrated in the group of intermediate schools and vocational colleges, without the active participation of vocational training centers, especially non-public vocational training centers and district-level vocational training centers. And also because of the lack of participation of district-level vocational training centers, some industries and occupations related to farmers and rural areas such as handicrafts, cultivation, animal husbandry, etc. do not have teachers participating or if there are, they are very few and of low quality. Some units have not paid attention to investing in teaching equipment and facilities, have not updated and innovated teaching content and programs to suit production and business requirements, technical progress and the development of science and technology. Some teachers have not really invested in teaching, so there are still monotonous lectures, not very open, not attractive to students...

Every year, vocational training institutions in the province organize vocational training for nearly 92 thousand students at college, intermediate and elementary levels. As of September 30, 2014, the total number of vocational teachers in the province was 2,227. In addition to increasing the number and scale of training, improving teaching methods, curriculum... schools have had solutions to focus on improving the qualifications of the teaching staff. However, the majority of teachers have just graduated from school and some have transferred from other professions, so they lack experience and skills in teaching.

Meanwhile, there are many teachers with professional qualifications, but have not been trained in vocational pedagogy. Some teachers are still limited in their foreign language and IT skills. The teaching skills of some teachers are still limited, especially in newly established vocational training institutions and district-level vocational training centers. Therefore, besides the encouraging achievements, the limitations of the provincial vocational training teacher conference in 2014 also objectively reflect the quality of the current vocational teaching staff. This is also an important basis for all levels and sectors to have reasonable plans and policies to adjust the vocational training structure, invest in facilities and train and improve the quality of vocational teaching staff to complete the goal of bringing the rate of trained workers to over 55% in 2015 and over 75% in 2020 according to the provincial vocational training development plan.

Minh Quan