These days, teacher Tran Thi Mai - a teacher at the Vietnam - Germany College is "camping" at secondary schools to work with the school's Board of Directors to provide admissions counseling to students. The school's target areas are usually mountainous districts, focusing mainly on students who do not wish to continue their studies to high school.
Ms. Mai said: Each region has its own characteristics. Parents and students in mountainous districts only want to go to work right away because of "cash and rice". Meanwhile, in plain districts or favorable areas, parents want their children to study in grade 10, finish high school diploma and then consider other options. Therefore, in many cases, although students share their desire to go to vocational school, when approaching parents, we encounter many difficulties. In order for parents to send their children to vocational school and study culture in vocational schools, in addition to committing to jobs after graduation, we also have to offer other employment solutions such as schools can cooperate with foreign unions to have hundreds of places to study abroad and export labor with high salaries; students can be recruited by large corporations abroad after achieving vocational qualifications at school; Students are guaranteed jobs with incomes ranging from 9 to 12 million VND/month after joining businesses that have orders from the school. “However, it can take us months to get parents’ ideas across,” Ms. Mai said.
At the Vietnam-Germany College, the school is assigned nearly 1,000 quotas each year. Of these, nearly 300 are for students in the secondary school stream. Although having many years of experience in training, the school's leaders also said that vocational training for high school graduates (grade 12) and students who have just graduated from secondary school (grade 9) is quite different. Adding to this, Mr. Nguyen Huu Hang - Principal of the Vietnam-Germany College said: Students who have just graduated from grade 9 are only 15, 16 years old, so they are still physically weak, immature, many of them have to leave their parents early and are not yet able to be independent. Therefore, to "retain" this group, so that they do not drop out of school halfway, we have to be both teachers and parents, creating all conditions for their families to feel secure when sending their children to the city to study. In addition, the most important thing is to provide quality training and commit to providing jobs for students after graduation.
Nghe An Ethnic Boarding Secondary School located in Con Cuong district currently trains 8 majors. According to statistics, in recent years, up to 6 majors of the school have achieved a 100% employment rate after graduation. The school's hot majors such as sewing, welding, electricity, and automotive technology are currently being increased in investment scale. The school is also aiming to be in the top vocational schools with school size and facilities according to national vocational training standards. The school's principal, Le Anh Tuan, said: "The advantage of the school is that the recruitment area is wide in the western region of Nghe An. Most students after graduating from junior high school want to have a job soon, so it is not too difficult to make them think clearly. "However, we also have to have our own plans so that students can see the advantages of studying at the school. When implementing the enrollment process, teachers approach parents first and commit to them about job opportunities after training. Therefore, for many years, the school has always achieved 100% of its target, each year enrolling 150-200 students into vocational classes who are streamed students.
FPT Polytechnic College is currently recruiting for the new school year with a target of 300 students. The school's target students are students who have graduated from junior high school with average to good academic performance. After the first 2 years of recruiting, the school's surprise is that many students have passed the entrance exam to public schools in Vinh city or many students who are only 0.1 - 05 points short still register to study.
FPT Polytechnic College is one of the vocational schools with the highest tuition fees in Nghe An today, with the cost for 3 years of study being about 120 million VND. Students here study "hot" majors such as Graphic Design, Digital Marketing, Software Applications. With the philosophy of "Learn Fast - Work Early", students here only have to study 4 basic cultural subjects. At the same time, they are trained in a profession and receive a regular college degree after graduation. In addition to the amount of general cultural knowledge and specialized knowledge, the school's training program focuses on skills activities and participation in many experiential activities, so students are quite interested.
Although the tuition fee is not low, according to Mr. Tran Mai Tu - Director of FPT College branch in Nghe An, the reason why parents and students are still willing to study is because parents' awareness of vocational training has changed a lot in recent years: In the past, we thought that only students with poor academic performance or difficult family circumstances would go to vocational training. But in reality, that is not the case. Many students at our school have studied at high-quality schools since primary and secondary school, their parents are civil servants and their families are well-off. However, they respect their children's decisions and choices. Often when approaching parents, we often receive questions, if they study vocational training, will they be able to go to college, will they be able to continue to university? What is the learning environment like? What are the job opportunities after graduation? If these requirements are met, parents are willing to accompany their children and accept overcoming common prejudices.
Tran San San is a former student of Phuong Hoang High School. Last school year, she took the 10th grade exam and scored 24.1 points. With this score, San San could have passed her wish list of public schools in Vinh city. However, in the end, her friends and teachers were very surprised when San decided to study at FPT College and chose to study IT - a career that she has loved for a long time.
With a solid cultural foundation from junior high school and hard work, after studying at FPT College for 1 year, San San became one of the 100 students with the best academic performance of the school in the first semester and was commended. This achievement of hers is also being sought after by many students in the school.
For many years now, the number of students who have graduated from junior high school in our province who choose to study vocational training has not been high. The reason is that some parents still have the idea that only poor students study at vocational schools; many parents want their children to complete grade 12 and then go to college or university, while in reality, many students have to spend 3 years studying in high school, even going to university, graduating without a job and having to go back to vocational training.
Mr. Hoang Sy Tuyen - Head of Vocational Training Department, Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs said: "In order for students to raise their awareness early, schools should innovate by organizing many early career orientation activities for students in grades 8 and 9 such as: going on field trips to experience career orientation at vocational schools; inviting representatives of colleges and vocational secondary schools to schools to introduce careers. In addition, there should be CEOs from businesses and parents who are successful in various fields coming to schools to talk to students to help them see the overall picture of careers and job opportunities, thereby considering and deciding on their choices. We also believe that career orientation and orientation should not be done mechanically, stereotyped or forced, but should follow the wishes, abilities and strengths of students. In fact, if students love vocational training, vocational training is also very good and effective. Even with the current training program, students can both study vocational training and study culture according to the program. GDTX. After finishing school, students can still take the 12th grade graduation exam and get a graduation certificate like high school students. In addition, they also have a vocational secondary school certificate and can continue their studies to college. They can even register for university entrance exams as usual. Vocational training costs are supported by the State...
