Vocational training - Issues raised

(Baonghean) -With 62 vocational training facilities and vocational training, Nghe An is one of the provinces with the largest scale of vocational schools in the country. However, the large number of vocational schools also brings great pressure on enrollment and investment in technical infrastructure. In that race, the burden always "weighs" on the shoulders of small-scale schools, schools in remote areas.

Difficulty in recruiting and investing in facilities

With a fairly large vocational school system (accounting for 42.76% of the North Central region), Nghe An is considered one of the provinces with the largest number of vocational schools in the country. However, vocational training in our province has revealed many shortcomings such as the network of vocational training facilities, although developing rapidly, the training scale is still small, the capacity is uneven, the training industry structure is not reasonable, not attracting students; facilities and equipment do not meet the requirements for training high-tech workers. The training structure is not suitable, there is an imbalance between training at different vocational levels, the capacity of the teaching staff does not meet the requirements, teaching is still heavy on theory, principles, lacking in practice and models.

The most obvious shortcoming today is the physical facilities. Although the whole province has 62 vocational training facilities, the number of schools with scale and proper investment can be counted on the fingers, the rest are mostly in a state of old, degraded physical facilities, outdated equipment, not meeting the requirements of training high-quality human resources. Regarding Do Luong Technical Economic College, taking us to see the current situation of the school, Mr. Hoang Danh Trung - Vice Principal said: The school was established more than ten years ago, upgraded to a vocational secondary school since 2010, but the physical facilities and teaching equipment have not been "upgraded".

According to the project, the investment in teaching equipment to meet the scale of a vocational secondary school is 100 billion VND, while in the past 3 years, only 3 billion VND has been invested. The whole school has only one two-story classroom building that is degraded, the level 4 factory building is old, looking like an abandoned house, covered with moss. The most impressive is the three-story building under construction. In the sewing practice room, teacher Nguyen Thi Luong showed us the uneven floor, the roof is full of holes. The sewing machines for practice are mainly JuKi machines, invested more than ten years ago. Le Huu Thanh, born in 1995, in Linh Son commune (Anh Son), who is studying sewing at the school, shared, "I plan to study sewing to go to Russia to work, but I am also worried because I only practice on old sewing machines, I don't know if I can use their modern machines there."

Vinh Industrial Technical and Economic Vocational College, is the central school of the city but currently has to study scatteredly, the main office and the short-term vocational training facility are located in two different locations on Dinh Cong Trang Street (Le Mao Ward), the lecture hall area is located on Ho Han Thuong Street (Cua Nam Ward), the factory area is located on Tran Phu Street (Hong Son Ward). The equipment is also only at the minimum conditions, not equipped with modern machinery and practice equipment even though the school has many majors such as industrial electricity, refrigeration, and automobile technology.

At Nghi Loc Vocational College of Economics and Industrial Technology, Mr. Pham Xuan Hong, the school's principal, admitted: Currently, most subjects do not have enough practice equipment to meet the requirements. Typically, the automobile technology subject of the model cutting part set, according to regulations, needs to be equipped with 9 sets but currently only has 1, the cold tool set needs 3 but only 1 has been equipped. Therefore, to meet the practical needs of students and the training program, the school has to organize overtime and extra classes after hours.

The reason for this situation is the lack of synchronization and unreasonableness in investment. The schools themselves have not been proactive in developing projects and plans for equipment investment, and still have a mindset of waiting and relying on others. Many localities consider it a private matter of the labor sector and the province, so they do not support investment in upgrading schools or vocational training equipment, even though the schools are located in the district, serving the district's human resource training work.

Inadequacies in investment in building facilities and equipment have led to inadequacies in the enrollment process, especially in district schools and schools in mountainous areas. Every year, based on the central and local budgets, the province assigns quotas and provides training funding for all public schools. However, the number of students is not enough to meet the quota. Every enrollment season, schools have to rush to find enough "input". Some schools even have a "commission" mechanism for consultants who introduce many students to study. A large-scale school with strengths in training in automotive technology such as the College of Digital Economics 1, this industry only has 35-40 enrollment quotas per year, but the student attraction rate is only 80-85%.

Even schools with prestige, brand, relatively good investment in facilities and equipment, the number of students is still mainly concentrated in "hot" majors, while many other majors have only a moderate number of students. Vocational Training School No. 4 - Ministry of National Defense currently has 15 training majors, although it is not as difficult to recruit as some other schools, but according to Colonel Le Anh Dung - Principal of the school, only a few majors such as automobile technology, air conditioning, refrigeration ... meet the target. Similarly, Vinh University of Technical Education, although last year the enrollment of vocational colleges exceeded 30%, there are also some majors that, although the enrollment target is 25 students, do not have to pay tuition, still have no students.

The main reason for this situation is the mentality of "preferring to be a teacher rather than a worker" of many students and parents today. In addition, the training program, as well as many training professions of schools are not close to reality; they have not paid attention to grasping, surveying the situation, tastes, psychology, and needs of students and localities. For example, in schools, there are many vocational training courses in mechanics, automobile industry, and small-scale industry, but they have not focused on key and strong industries and professions to meet the socio-economic development requirements of the province, such as: cement, construction materials, hydropower, beer, large-scale livestock farming and milk processing, ship operation and repair, etc.

To learn about the above issue, we went to Nghe An General Packaging and Trading Joint Stock Company, a unit with 190 direct production workers, of which 100% of the workers have received vocational training. However, vocational training has only been implemented after these workers started working at the factory. Those who have been trained must also be retrained, because the company's machinery is mostly imported from Europe, with new technology. The unit also wants to create conditions for workers to go to school to improve their skills, but there is currently no vocational school that provides training specifically for the packaging industry - said Mr. Pham Quang Linh, Head of the Organization Department.

According to Mr. Nguyen Trong Thuyen - Head of the Department of Automotive Technology, College of Economics and Technology No. 1: Students often care about degrees and the name of the school without caring about the quality of training. Although they are vocational colleges, they flock to faculties located in universities, not degrees from vocational colleges. Mr. Nguyen Huy Luong - Head of Training Department, Vinh College of Economics and Technology said: The network of vocational schools in the province is too dense with 18/21 districts, cities and towns having vocational schools or vocational training. For small schools like us, if we go to the district, we will be stuck with the "district", and if we go to the city, to "compete" with the "big guys" is impossible. There needs to be a clear decentralization, bringing schools back to their proper functions and tasks, avoiding waste of facilities and equipment, teachers,

In fact, the number of potential students who can study vocational training in our province is not small, but the number of people registering is very low. For example, in the 2011-2012 school year, the whole province had 1,017 students who graduated from junior high school and did not continue to study at high school, but only 17 students turned to vocational training - to study at professional secondary schools. The rate of highly skilled workers who received training was only 5.54% in 2010 and about 9% in 2012, the rate of trained workers was just over 45%, of which high-level workers (5, 6, 7) accounted for more than 1%. Why is there this inadequacy, while vocational students are supported by the State with tuition fees and accommodation costs? The answer lies in the quality of training and training content of the schools themselves.

Many sewing machines at Do Luong Technical Economic College invested
has long been outdated.

Effective models

However, in recent years, our province has had bright spots, achieving high efficiency in vocational training. A typical example is Yen Thanh Technical Vocational College - the school chosen by the General Department of Vocational Training to build a model of "model rural vocational school". Located in a purely agricultural district, with abundant labor resources and a high demand for vocational training, the school has continuously mobilized investment in building a system of facilities, vocational training equipment, standardizing the teaching staff, continuously innovating, supplementing, and perfecting the content of vocational training programs... to meet practical needs.

Right from the beginning of each school year, the school has coordinated with junior high schools, high schools and localities to disseminate information to families and villages; assign staff and teachers to closely follow the areas and develop clear targets. The school also advocates training suitable for each labor group and training profession to reduce difficulties for students when participating in vocational training or have conditions to develop their profession well in the locality. Of the 12 registered training professions, the school currently focuses on investing in 3-4 professions. For example, sewing, because there is a Japanese garment factory in the area, neighboring districts such as Do Luong and Dien Chau all have garment companies with labor recruitment needs. For short-term occupations, focusing on mushroom growing, production and animal husbandry are occupations included in the district's economic development strategy.

The school does not encourage training in occupations that have no basis for development, exceed the actual capacity and scale, and are ineffective after the students finish their courses. The important thing is that the school always links training with job creation, considering this a decisive factor in attracting students and workers to the vocational school - said Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Principal of the school. The school has also established relationships with many large companies and corporations, creating a closed process from enrollment, training and job referral. Therefore, in the past 3 years, Yen Thanh Technical Vocational College has sent many graduates to work at Machine Assembly Company 3, Machine Assembly Company 7, Cienco4 Company, Lan Lan Garment Company (Thai Binh). Specifically, in 2012, the school had 156/156 graduates with jobs, in 2013, 115/115 graduates with jobs.

At the Vietnam - Germany Technical Vocational College, the school invests nearly 5 billion VND annually for vocational training. In particular, the school has invested in a complete distance learning system using high-speed multi-dimensional internet. To improve the quality of teaching and learning, every year, along with inviting domestic experts to train teachers and teachers to participate in provincial and national competitions for excellent teachers, the school also invites German experts to participate in compiling framework textbooks for a number of new professions. Since the 2004 school year, each year the school has supported 20 staff and teachers to study at universities and graduate schools in and outside the country.

In the past 10 years, the school has trained more than 10,000 highly skilled technical workers to supply the economic sectors of the province and the North Central region. To facilitate students after graduation, every year, the school has linked and created a bridge with domestic and foreign units to create opportunities for students to have jobs immediately after graduation. The school has also cooperated with the Overseas Labor Export Management Board - Ministry of National Defense, Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs to search for orders and introduce workers to work in countries such as Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...

Not only do vocational schools make efforts in vocational training, but with the motto of "hand-holding and guiding", some district-level vocational training centers in mountainous areas have also succeeded with effective livestock models. Although they have not been funded and lack teachers and have to hire outside contracts, in the past 6 months, Anh Son District Vocational Training Center has still opened 12 vocational training classes for farmers, including 8 livestock and poultry farming classes, 2 mushroom growing classes, 2 sugarcane growing classes, many models of ethnic minority people have proven effective.

In Tra Lan hamlet - Phuc Son commune (Anh Son), 35 students participating in the mushroom growing vocational training class organized by the Center quickly had products. After more than 1 month, the model has harvested 4 periods of oyster mushrooms and straw mushrooms, each period weighing 4kg. Up to now, 4 members have learned to grow mushrooms at home. Ms. Nguyen Thi Chinh - Head of the Women's Association and also the class leader of the mushroom growing vocational training class said: The families here do not have any other jobs besides farming, now that the center has opened a vocational training class, we are very excited, having another job, having more income because straw mushrooms are easy to find, require little investment, and are quick to harvest.

In Vinh Kim village, Hoa Son commune, most of the people participate in the model of raising Luong Phuong chickens. After learning the trade, each household is invested with 50 breeding chickens. During the raising process, the engineers of the contract center provide technical guidance and care to prevent diseases for the chickens, so the chickens grow quickly, weighing 1.5-1.7 kg/chicken in less than 3 months. In Dinh Son, there are also more than 30 households raising Luong Phuong chickens, with the district vocational training center directly providing technical guidance.

Cao Veu village - Phuc Son commune, thanks to livestock and poultry farming models by the Vocational Training Center with more than 30 households participating in raising sows, pigs, chickens, ducks, and goats, people here no longer have to cut firewood and peel bamboo shoots to sell, which not only depletes the forest but also fails to eliminate poverty.

What is the solution?

In reality, the ability to grasp reality to build enrollment plans and training programs that are appropriate to each time and each locality, linked to market trends, and proactively link with businesses and companies to provide training according to addresses and orders, linked to job creation, and ensure output for learners is one of the vital factors of vocational schools today.

In addition, to improve the quality of vocational training and attract students to vocational schools, it is necessary to focus on improving the quality of the teaching staff according to the trend of vocational training. In reality, the quality of teachers in some vocational schools is still low and uneven, the fear of innovating teaching methods goes hand in hand with the very common situation of "teaching without knowledge". Teachers in vocational schools still focus on "teaching words" and pay little attention to "teaching a profession". At the meeting to listen to and give opinions on the direction and tasks of the new school year, comrade Ho Duc Phoc - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee said that "The current vocational teaching staff of our province is still weak, poor teachers cannot have good students. Therefore, it is necessary to review and supplement vocational teachers with high qualifications and skills, to overcome the situation of teaching without knowledge and learning without knowledge".

Increase the State budget, invest in upgrading facilities, in which priority is given to developing high-quality schools and vocational schools, occupations approaching international, ASEAN, national standards and vocational training facilities in rural areas and ethnic minority areas. Upgrade and invest in new vocational training equipment suitable for production reality. Avoid the situation of having to retrain before using trained workers. Schools need to strive to ensure investment in facilities and minimum vocational training equipment for the trained occupations. Apply advanced technology to teaching, reduce theory time, increase practice time. For schools lacking equipment, they should proactively link with production facilities and factories so that not only do they practice simply on "models", but students can also experience in factories, practice with modern machinery, equipment and technology currently in use. Because "practice determines vocational skills".

It is important to identify that currently in our province, the proportion of laborers in the agricultural environment still accounts for the majority. Therefore, schools, especially schools in rural areas, need to focus on suitable occupations related to the fields of cultivation, animal husbandry, machinery, mechanics, application of science and technology in production... in line with the current new rural construction. For rural workers, it is necessary to increase field activities in fields, gardens, ponds, barns, specific economic models... flexible in terms of time and method.

Proactively open short-term training courses during off-season, creating conditions to encourage rural workers to learn a trade. “Vocational schools in rural areas must know how to “cut their coat according to their cloth”, should not take on too much, but should base on their ability and actual conditions to focus on training in occupations that are suitable to practical needs, local strengths and the needs of workers...” - Mr. Tran Van Tuan - Principal of Yen Thanh Technical Vocational College affirmed.

It is also necessary to emphasize that the majority of workers in our province are still poor and do not have the financial means to attend long-term training courses far from their hometowns (they may not have to pay tuition fees, but the cost of accommodation and travel is also a burden for poor households and poor students). Therefore, it is necessary to adjust reasonable tuition fees for each group, region, and area; have policies to support vocational students by either schools allowing workers to owe tuition fees and pay them in installments after graduation and having a job; or the State providing loans for vocational training and paying them in installments in stages... Associations or local authorities can coordinate or take the lead in implementing this policy.

Nghe An is on the way to becoming an economic and cultural center of the North Central region. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the skilled labor force as an important resource. The target and demand for vocationally trained labor by 2020 is 390,000 people, of which 125,000 are technical workers. Therefore, investing in developing a system of vocational schools is a right direction, in line with the socio-economic development tasks of the province; with current practical needs. Most importantly, vocational training must be associated with the planning of each locality, focusing on training quality, support, and job creation for workers after vocational training. Strengthen state management of vocational training, avoid loss and waste of funds, in order to ensure the quality of human resources serving economic and social development towards industrialization and modernization.

Article and photos: Ha Ly - S. Thuan