Inadequacies in vocational training

(Baonghean) - According to the data released by the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in July 2014, the whole province has about 8,000 bachelors and masters who lack jobs, of which 4,000 are completely unemployed. Meanwhile, there is a shortage of highly skilled human resources (the whole province only has 5.54% of workers with intermediate vocational qualifications or higher). To meet the needs of industrialization and modernization, it is necessary to promote and improve the quality of vocational training. However, in the province today, vocational training still has many shortcomings...

The changes

There are currently 64 vocational training facilities in the province, including 40 vocational training facilities (including 6 vocational colleges, 9 vocational secondary schools, 25 vocational training centers) and 24 vocational training facilities. Compared to previous years, vocational training facilities have been distributed more evenly across regions; about 75% of technical labor training facilities have been supplemented and upgraded to meet basic practice requirements; some facilities have been equipped with synchronous and modern facilities in some occupations suitable to the requirements of enterprises such as welding, automotive technology, industrial electricity, electronics, refrigeration, and food processing techniques. Currently, Nghe An has been approved by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to select 12 schools with 34 key occupations to support investment from the National Target Program for the period 2011 - 2015.

Students of Vietnam - Korea Vocational College of Technology practice metal cutting

In the period 2010 - 2014, each year vocational training facilities provided training for more than 80,000 students. Of which, 4,518 were vocational college students; 8,975 were intermediate vocational students; 63,052 were primary vocational students and regular vocational training students, of which 8,764 were trained according to Project 1956 on vocational training for rural workers. As a result, the rate of trained workers increased from 33% (2010) to 44% (2013) and is expected to reach 46% (2014).

According to the report of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, every year, the rate of vocational secondary and vocational college graduates reaches over 95%, of which 29% are good or excellent. Some schools have linked with businesses to provide on-site training and provide good jobs after training, such as: Vietnam - Korea Industrial Technical Vocational College, Vietnam - Germany Technical Vocational College, Tourism - Trade Vocational College, Industrial Economics - Handicraft Vocational College... Training quality is also demonstrated in the results of "National and regional vocational competitions" of students from vocational schools in the area (for example, in 2014, Nghe An had 1 student win second prize in the ASEAN vocational skills competition).

And the disadvantages

Currently, most vocational training institutions still train according to the capacity of the institution, focusing on occupations such as electricity, electronics, motorbike repair, mechanics, tailoring, accounting, information technology, etc., without paying attention to training according to the needs of the labor market. Even in schools with systematic investment, the training occupations between schools still overlap, and there are no high-tech occupations according to market requirements. It can be clearly seen that schools considered to have quality such as Vietnam - Korea Industrial Technical Vocational College, Vietnam - Germany Vocational College, Vocational College No. 4, Vocational College No. 1, etc., all train in the fields of mechanics, car and motorbike repair, electricity, welding, etc., while key occupations and strengths to meet the requirements of economic and social development of the province such as: cement, construction materials; hydropower, large-scale livestock farming and milk processing, operating and repairing hydraulic machines, etc. are being "forgotten".

In fact, some colleges and vocational schools in the province show that the curriculum and training programs at vocational schools are not suitable for the recruitment needs of business owners and entrepreneurs in the city. For example, the sewing profession, although the fashion garment industry is quite developed, the recruitment demand is quite high, but most units accept to recruit unskilled people and retrain them. Meanwhile, the sewing training program at schools from intermediate to college only trains industrial sewing workers or trains according to orders from companies, slow to innovate, slow to adapt to practical requirements. Or the hairdressing profession, which is a high-income profession, but hairdressers in Vinh City are mainly from other provinces and cities, in Nghe An there is no reputable training facility for this profession. That inadequacy makes students not interested in learning a profession.

As a result, although the number of vocational training facilities has grown rapidly, in reality only vocational colleges in Vinh City have met their enrollment targets, while vocational secondary schools, although built on a fairly large scale, have very limited enrollment sources every year due to unreasonable planning and placement of centers, inappropriate training fields, and failure to keep up with the development trends of society.

With the task of providing vocational guidance and training for rural workers, and linking vocational training, most vocational training centers in the districts currently have limited facilities, lack of teachers, and old textbooks, failing to meet the needs of learners and local needs. For example, the vocational training center of Anh Son district only has 2 practice workshops; the structure of the center's teaching staff is also inadequate: the center has 8 people, but 4 are administrative staff, 3 teachers, 2 are IT teachers, 1 is a veterinary teacher. Currently, the center has opened classes to teach cooking, welding, and mechanics, but it is having to link up or hire teachers from other centers to teach. In Tan Ky district, the district's vocational training center has also been invested in quite spaciously, but it does not have machinery, equipment, or technical facilities. Training classes that want to open must hire teachers from Do Luong District Vocational College to teach on weekends, which is inconvenient for students...

According to Mr. Dang Cao Thang - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the reason for the above situation is that the inspection, examination and supervision of vocational training activities at all levels and sectors are not regular; the investigation and survey work, the demand for labor market and the demand for vocational training are still limited. In particular, the assessment and evaluation of vocational training quality at vocational training institutions has not been thoroughly implemented: in 2 years (2013 - 2014), only comprehensive assessment of vocational training quality was conducted at 3 institutions and vocational training program was assessed at 2 vocational training institutions.

To achieve the target of raising the rate of trained workers to 52% by 2015 and over 70% by 2020 according to the Resolution of the 17th Congress of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee for the term (2011 - 2015), our province needs to clearly define the groups of workers in vocational training to have appropriate training orientations and plans, close to the vocational training needs of workers and the socio-economic development situation of the province. Innovate and promote propaganda, consulting, job introduction and raise awareness among people about the importance of vocational training for the socio-economic development requirements of the province. In addition, it is necessary to perfect the mechanism, policies and state management of vocational training, especially policies for apprentices, trained workers, policies for enterprises participating in vocational training, etc.

Build and plan the development of a network of vocational training facilities in the province for the period 2011 - 2020 in accordance with the requirements of human resource training, especially technical worker training facilities; facilities that do not meet the regulations and conditions on vocational training will be submitted to competent authorities for elimination and dissolution; at the same time, focus on consolidating, upgrading and expanding the training scale of vocational training facilities that have sufficient conditions, capabilities and capacity to participate in vocational training. In addition, it is necessary to expand the domestic and foreign labor market; create all favorable conditions to attract many economic groups to Nghe An to invest or open vocational training facilities, promote international cooperation on vocational training...

Article and photos:Minh Quan