Diversified training activities - the right direction at Nghe An Continuing Education Center

(Baonghean) - Nghe An Province Continuing Education Center was established on December 16, 1995 on the basis of merging the Provincial Center for Training and Fostering In-service Cadres and Nghe An School of Educational Management Cadres.

After more than 20 years of establishment, Nghe An Continuing Education Center is one of the units with a tradition in training and improving the qualifications of cadres, civil servants, public employees and teachers of the province. This is also the basis for the Center to be assigned from the end of June to organize exams and issue IT application certificates to ensure IT skills standards according to the provisions of Circular No. 03/2014/TT-BTTTT - Ministry of Information and Communications...

Raising the "standards" for civil servants, public employees and teachers

Circular No. 03/2014/TT-BTTTT dated March 11, 2014 of the Minister of Information and Communications regulating the level and capacity of using IT according to the IT skills standards took effect from the end of April 2014. Accordingly, if previously the level standards for cadres, civil servants, and public employees (in terms of ranks, levels, or planning and appointment) were regulated by certificates A, B, C, they are now replaced by other IT skills standards including basic IT skills standards and advanced IT skills standards.

The Department of Education and Training and the school's Board of Directors inspect the IT room facilities. Photo: My Ha

In Nghe An, after Circular 03 was issued, many teachers in the province rushed to study to meet the required standards. However, during the implementation process, due to the lack of necessary information, the granting of certificates was quite messy, inconsistent and more or less affected the quality. Meanwhile, if following the new standards, the rate of qualified teachers would only reach 3 - 4%. Entering the 2016 - 2017 school year, implementing the directive of the Minister of Education and Training, the entire education sector was required to thoroughly grasp the direction and focus on implementing the main groups of tasks for the school year and the following years, including 9 basic tasks and 5 main solutions.

One of the important tasks is to "Strengthen the application of information technology in management, direction and implementation of e-Government in educational management agencies at all levels and educational institutions in a synchronous and interconnected manner"... According to Mr. Nguyen Huy Anh - Deputy Head of the Department of Organization and Personnel, Department of Education and Training, raising standards for teachers is extremely important and a necessary requirement, especially when currently educational innovation and application of information technology are used frequently in the education sector...

From these shortcomings, it is necessary to choose a reputable unit with adequate facilities to organize exams and issue IT application certificates according to regulations. However, in the province, apart from 20 district-level continuing education centers and a number of private foreign language IT centers that are conducting exams and issuing certificates in the old form, there is no unit that organizes exams and issuing certificates according to regulations.

This is also the reason why the Provincial Continuing Education Center has developed a project on "Organizing training, exams and granting certificates of Information Technology Application at the Nghe An Provincial Continuing Education Center". After nearly 1 year of preparation, the project has been approved by the Nghe An Department of Education and Training according to Decision No. 1296/QD - SGDĐT issued on June 22, 2017 on assigning the task of organizing exams and granting certificates of information technology application, effective from June 25, 2017.

Skills class for students during summer vacation. Photo: My Ha

In fact, training and improving the qualifications of cadres, civil servants, public employees and teachers has also been a regular task carried out by the Provincial Continuing Education Center for over 20 years. In the field of IT, the advantage is that the center has a spacious infrastructure system, computer rooms with modern security surveillance IP camera systems; an internet network system with high-speed fiber optic cable, 1 server and a synchronous LAN network system; examination rooms with enough light; a common clock for all candidates to monitor their test time; a printer connected to the computer; security inspection equipment such as magnetic gates or handheld devices to control candidates bringing items into the examination room... The center has also developed a training program as well as review content to serve the task of assessing students' abilities.

Diversify fields of operation

The Department of Education and Training's approval of the Project "Organizing training, testing and granting certificates of IT Application" also opens up a new opportunity for Nghe An Continuing Education Center and shows that the policy of innovation and expansion of training professions that the school's Board of Directors has built is completely correct.

Looking back at the development process, due to many objective reasons, there were times when the training scale at the unit decreased, some majors, training forms, and the number of students decreased significantly, even no one registered to study. However, in the common difficulties, the center has had policies and solutions to innovate and improve the effectiveness of training cooperation, gradually diversifying tasks.

Currently, the center has cooperated with 20 universities, colleges and vocational schools nationwide, training over 20 different majors with an average of more than 1,000 students per year. In addition, the center proactively cooperates with businesses and companies that need foreign language training for civil servants, building training programs according to the requirements of businesses to open English classes to serve the operational needs of agencies and businesses.

Among them, there are many highly appreciated programs such as: developing and implementing a review program to help teachers take the FCE international certificate exam of Cambridge University; implementing classes to teach Thai ethnic language and writing for officials and civil servants of provincial departments, branches and sectors. Organizing training courses to improve management skills, supplementary knowledge classes; reviewing entrance exams for master's classes at universities; organizing TOEFL and FCE English certificate review exams for primary, secondary and high school teachers.

Foreign language class at the Continuing Education Center. Photo: My Ha

In particular, in the past 3 years, in the summer of 2017 alone, the center organized 35 classes with nearly 1,000 children participating, initially successfully organizing life skills and talent training classes for students at all levels in the city and is considered an activity marking the efforts in diversifying training types at the Center. In the summer of 2017 alone, the center organized 35 life skills and talent classes with nearly 1,000 children participating.

From these successes, in the coming time, according to Dr. Le Vo Binh - Director of the Provincial Continuing Education Center, the Center will continue to promote the survey of the needs of learners from socio-economic sectors and enterprises in the province to closely and promptly forecast training needs, on that basis, proactively contact universities with tradition and prestige to register annual quotas and diversify training sectors and occupations.

During the implementation process, administrative work will be innovated, including: consulting and advising for learners; receiving documents... to create the most favorable conditions for learners and build a healthy cultural environment in all areas of activity. On the part of the leadership, constantly build, consolidate and innovate the organization to meet the requirements and tasks in the new period. Thereby, striving to build the center into a reliable training address and increasingly affirm the quality and reputation in the general training system of the whole province.

My Ha