Part 3: Merger is an inevitable trend
Reviewing and evaluating the performance of existing vocational training institutions, accelerating the merger and dissolution of ineffective vocational training institutions is the goal set forth in Project No. 14-DA/TU dated January 25, 2022 of the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee on training and developing skilled human resources in the province for the period 2021-2025, with a vision to 2030. In the current context, this is an inevitable trend.
Thanh Nga - My Ha• August 26, 2024
The latest report of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee on the results of training and human resource development in the area has pointed out the shortcomings in vocational training. That is, the network of vocational training institutions is still scattered, has overlapping functions and tasks, and most of the enrollment scale is small. High-quality, international-level programs have not been widely implemented, especially in German and Australian occupations.
In addition, the quantity, occupational structure, and quality of some teachers and managers have not met the requirements. The training program is not really flexible according to the requirements of the labor market. Some new occupational codes have not been opened, which the labor market will have a high demand for in the coming time, such as: Logistics, mechatronics operation, industrial visual system maintenance, integrated circuit engineer. The facilities and training equipment of most vocational training institutions are still lacking, have not been invested synchronously, and cannot keep up with the development of new science and technology, especially the Vocational Education - Continuing Education Centers at the district level.
The limited quality of vocational training is one of the reasons why many students are not interested in studying at vocational schools. The provincial survey also shows that, if calculated by period, the vocational training rate in the whole province tends to decrease. For example, the period 2016 - 2020 decreased by nearly 12.6% compared to the period 2011 - 2015, the graduation rate decreased by 6.5%; the structure of training enrollment levels is not suitable for labor needs, college level only accounts for 19%, compared to the total number of trained workers. The vocational education distribution network is still scattered, overlapping functions and tasks and most of the enrollment scale is small; training capacity only meets 73.4% of the needs of students.
With these limitations, in addition to objective causes, there are many subjective causes such as the role of state management, proactive regulation of enrollment targets, training occupations, regulation of teaching staff, vocational education management staff, and the system of workshops and training equipment to suit the actual needs of vocational education institutions have not been done well. This leads to a situation where some localities have a need to train this profession but lack teachers and facilities while other localities have excess teachers, waste workshops, vocational training equipment, etc.
Along with that, many vocational training institutions are not really dynamic and responsive in management and organization of activities to keep up with new requirements of the profession, the training level does not meet the demand for technical human resources for businesses and local practices. The structure of investment in facilities and equipment procurement at some key vocational training institutions is not reasonable, not focusing on investment in teaching equipment to improve students' practical ability.
In addition, the implementation of staff streamlining in the spirit of Resolution No. 39 for many vocational education institutions is not appropriate, especially in the conditions where schools are still lacking teachers, have additional functions and tasks, and have increased the size of schools and classes.
To overcome the above limitations, it is necessary to review and evaluate the effectiveness of existing educational institutions. Therefore, on January 25, 2022, the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee issued Project 14 - DA/TU on training and developing skilled human resources in Nghe An province for the period 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030. In this project, in addition to the task of improving the quality of human resources, Nghe An also aims to consolidate and improve the operational capacity of vocational education institutions in an open, flexible, modern, effective, multi-modal, and multi-level direction to meet the learning needs and improve the vocational skills of workers...
To effectively implement Project 14-DA/TU, one of the important solutions is to re-plan the network of vocational education institutions. The arrangement is carried out in the direction of standardization, according to the principle of regions, reducing the number of public institutions, reducing the number of functional and tasked institutions on vocational education, dissolving and merging ineffective institutions that do not meet the prescribed conditions. At the same time, the development of non-public educational institutions is encouraged.
Specifically, in the period from 2021 to 2025, the province aims to reduce from 62 vocational training institutions to 41, including 18 public institutions, 3 non-public institutions and 2 institutions under the management of central ministries and branches. By 2030, in addition to continuing to maintain, consolidate, develop and improve the operational efficiency of planned vocational training institutions, the province will merge colleges and intermediate schools operating in a regional orientation (including urban centers, coastal plains, Southwest and Northwest regions of the province).
In addition, attract investment and establish 1-2 colleges and intermediate schools with foreign elements or those of large domestic enterprises to train and supply skilled human resources for industrial parks and key economic zones inside and outside the province.
In fact, it was not since Project No. 14 - DA/TU that Nghe An discussed the work of re-planning the network and merging vocational schools. Previously, in the period of 2015-2020, the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, relevant departments and localities actively advised and implemented the reorganization of the apparatus and network of vocational education institutions, and dissolved ineffective institutions.
Through the 2015-2020 reorganization, Nghe An has merged 25 vocational training centers and continuing education centers into 12 vocational training centers; renamed and added vocational education functions to 7 vocational training centers into vocational training centers. The province has also dissolved 1 public secondary school and 2 non-public centers. At the same time, the state management function of vocational education of 1 college and 5 vocational secondary schools has been transferred from the Ministry of Education and Training to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.
The Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center of Anh Son District used to be two independent institutions with the function of vocational training and cultural education for students after graduating from secondary school. Therefore, before the merger, competition to attract students was a common occurrence.
Recalling that time, Mr. Bui Duc Tuan - Director of the center said: When two units have the same training function, competition is inevitable. But in reality, at that time, the training quality of both units was not high. Because the vocational education center only has the function of training elementary vocational skills or vocational skills with a duration of less than 3 months. Therefore, students who want to improve their skills or have an intermediate degree must enroll in other vocational schools in the province. As for the Continuing Education Center, because it only teaches culture, it cannot attract students to study. Most students studying in this system want to study culture and learn a profession at the same time to shorten their study time and have a dual degree after graduating from school.
For those reasons, in addition to the need to streamline the staff and streamline the vocational education and training apparatus in accordance with Circular No. 39/2015/TTLT-BLDTBXH - BGDDT-BNV on the merger of vocational training centers and district-level continuing education centers, in October 2017, the two vocational training and continuing education centers in the district merged into the vocational training and continuing education center. Director of the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center of Anh Son district, Mr. Bui Duc Tuan, added: Since the merger, we have taken advantage of the previous strengths of the facilities and have had a mechanism to link with vocational colleges and junior colleges such as Viet Duc College, Bac Nghe An Economic and Technical College so that students after graduation have both a cultural degree and a vocational secondary degree. In recent years, the school has always exceeded its enrollment targets and parents and students are no longer afraid of having to study at the vocational training and continuing education center.
In recent times, the Center for Continuing Education - Nghia Dan District has also made great strides in training and attracting students in the area and surrounding areas. From 2 independent units operating quite sluggishly because the enrollment quota was always higher than the number of students attracted each year. However, after 7 years of merging, the unit has gradually operated effectively, the number of students attracted each year is always higher than the previous year, especially many students graduating from junior high school in the surrounding areas such as Quynh Luu, Hoang Mai always come to the center as a reliable address. Mr. Truong Hung Cuong - Director of the Center for Continuing Education - Nghia Dan District said that in the past 2 years, the number of students registering for the center's Continuing Education block has increased, the school always has to ask for more quotas to meet the learning needs of children in the area.
According to Mr. Hoang Sy Tuyen - Head of Vocational Training Department, Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs: After merging 10 vocational training units, vocational training and cultural teaching for students after streaming in the area have achieved outstanding results. Enrollment scale: 88,500 students/year, an increase of 8.9% compared to 2014, increasing from 80,600 people in 2015 to 88,500 people in 2020 (an increase of 9%). Of which, vocational colleges increased by 17.2% with 7,975 students; vocational secondary schools: 15,655 students; vocational primary schools and regular vocational training: 64,870 students.
(To be continued)
