Affirming brand and quality

(Baonghean) - In March 2016, the International Vocational Skills Assessment Center at Vinh University of Technical Education officially came into operation. This is the first International Vocational Skills Assessment Center in Vietnam and the second center in ASEAN certified by City & Guilds, UK.

The plan to establish an International Vocational Skills Assessment Center was planned by Vinh University of Technical Education since 2013. To be recognized, the school had to fully meet the strict standards of City & Guilds, especially in assessing facilities, quality management processes and teaching staff.

In fact, before being officially recognized, both sides have gone through many working programs such as organizing training courses on pedagogical skills and assessment skills for assessors; visiting and surveying advanced KNN assessment center models in the UK, organizing specialized seminars; improving facilities to have enough conditions to serve KNN assessment work according to international standards.

Representatives of City & Guilds came to work and inspect the facilities at Vinh University of Technical Education.

After nearly 3 years of preparation, the center for training, assessing and granting vocational skills certificates according to international standards was certified by City & Guilds, UK in March 2016. Its main functions are: training, assessing and granting vocational skills certificates according to international standards of City & Guilds in Vietnam.

After being put into operation, the center will gradually organize training courses to gradually standardize the team of vocational teachers nationwide according to international and regional standards. Thereby, serving the training process of occupations according to international and regional standards (according to the Government's vocational training development strategy).

As one of the 5 teachers sent to training and granted a C&G (City&Guilds) assessor certificate, Dr. Le Van Bien (Electronics lecturer) said: The assessor training program organized by the British Council, Westminster Kingsway College and City&Guilds was only held for about 2 months, but through it we were equipped with a lot of necessary knowledge on how to implement training and assess vocational skills, foreign language skills, and working skills in an international environment. This is truly a valuable experience for us to learn and apply when implementing in Vietnam.

Up to now, Vinh University of Technical Education is the first school in the country to be certified by City & Guilds as qualified for international vocational skills assessment, and is the second center to be recognized in Southeast Asia (the first center is in Malaysia).

This is extremely important because currently in the system of universities, colleges and vocational schools in Vietnam, there are 40 schools that have been approved by the Prime Minister as high-quality vocational schools, capable of training a number of occupations recognized by advanced countries in the ASEAN region or internationally. However, among these, in addition to the criteria on facilities, training scale, and employment, the criteria on the team of teachers meeting international standards are still very low.

In fact, in recent years, only a very small number of teachers nationwide have been trained in international vocational skills through training courses through the Malaysian International Vocational Skills Assessment Center, which is linked to a number of vocational colleges in Vietnam or sent to study in other countries.

The official recognition and operation of the International Vocational Skills Assessment Center at Vinh University of Technical Education will create very good conditions for teachers at vocational schools to study and improve their qualifications according to international standards. Currently, the center has been licensed to train, assess and grant Vocational Pedagogy certificates according to international standards (level 1 and level 2) of the City & Guilds organization.

A practical session of metal cutting students

In addition, the center is preparing to train, evaluate and grant certificates for Metal Cutting, Industrial Electricity, Automotive Technology, Industrial Electronics for students and workers. In preparation for the first courses, in addition to the teaching staff that has met the requirements, Vinh University of Technical Education has also prepared the necessary conditions for facilities.

Speaking more about the preparation work, Dr. Nguyen Van Cuong - Deputy Head of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, in charge of the International Vocational Skills Assessment Center, shared: We consider being recognized as an International Vocational Skills Assessment Center as a very good opportunity for the school's teaching staff to improve their qualifications and skills. Thereby, it also requires the units in the school to continue to make efforts to increasingly improve their training and strengthen their facilities. This is also an important step for the school to affirm its brand and training quality, and to keep up with the inevitable trend in the process of international integration.

Previously, with financial support from the British Council, Vinh University of Technical Education and City & Guilds also developed a cooperation project. Accordingly, in addition to helping Vinh University of Technical Education establish a training and assessment center for occupations according to C&G standards, City & Guilds also supported and advised on quality assurance, to ensure the maintenance of quality throughout the establishment of the center; helped determine the position of Vinh University of Technical Education as an international standard vocational training and assessment center in Vietnam; conducted impact research to determine changes to improve skills and employment opportunities for students thanks to the improvement of skills of the teaching staff...

My Ha