Striving to become a high quality vocational school

(Baonghean) - Vietnam - Korea Industrial Technical Vocational College (VK-KTCN), formerly known as Vietnam - Korea Industrial Technical College, was established in 1998. After 17 years of construction and development, Vietnam - Korea Industrial Technical College has been affirming the "Vietnam - Korea" brand in the field of vocational training.

To meet the demand for developing high-quality human resources in the period of 2015 - 2020, serving the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country, on May 23, 2014, the Prime Minister issued Decision 761/QD-TTg approving the "Project on developing high-quality vocational schools by 2020". Vietnam - Korea Vocational College of Technology and Engineering is one of 45 schools selected to strive to become a high-quality vocational school, this is an opportunity but also a big challenge for the school.

Welding practice at Vietnam - Korea Vocational College of Technology.

In order to strive to become a high-quality vocational school, immediately after the Prime Minister's decision and the list of selected schools, the school's leaders focused on studying the viewpoints, goals, criteria of a high-quality vocational school, tasks and solutions and financial mechanisms to implement the project. Based on the re-evaluation of the current situation of the management staff, teachers, staff, facilities, training program equipment, enrollment, management, determining the goals to be achieved, tasks, solutions to implement, mechanisms and policies, the school built the Project "Investment in developing the Vietnam - Korea Industrial Technical Vocational College into a high-quality vocational school".

Currently, the Vietnam - Korea Vocational College of Technology and Education is training 11 occupations, of which 5 occupations are selected to strive to reach international level, 2 occupations reach ASEAN level (Decision 854/QD-LDTBXH of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs). The current training scale of the school is 3,000 students. The staff and teachers are 177 people, 6 departments, 9 faculties, 2 centers. Of which, 134 teachers, 2% have doctoral degrees, 75% have master's degrees, 98% have vocational pedagogical certificates, 80% of teachers have vocational skills certificates, 25% of teachers have studied in Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, China, the United Kingdom. The school received investment from the Korean Government in phase I (1999) of 5 million USD, phase II (2007) of 2.35 million USD, with Nghe An's counterpart capital of over 30 billion VND on a campus of 76,000 m2. These are necessary conditions to strive to achieve the 6 criteria of a high-quality vocational school.

Practical electricity class of students of Vietnam - Korea school

The first criterion, on training scale: The minimum training scale is 2,000 vocational secondary and college students, of which at least 30% are studying key occupations. The school has achieved this criterion, because currently the school has nearly 3,000 students, of which key occupations account for over 60%. However, from now until 2020, the school strives to increase the training scale to over 4,500 students.

Second criterion, on employment after training: At least 80% of graduates have jobs in their trained profession within 6 months of graduation, of which key professions reach at least 90%. Currently, over 80% of the school's students have jobs after graduation. The school strives for students to work in their trained profession and the number of students with jobs to increase to over 90% within the next 3 years. To achieve this criterion, the school will focus on improving the quality of training, ensuring that graduates have knowledge, skills, and work skills. Strengthen cooperation with businesses, increase the number of businesses that will cooperate and expand the scope of cooperation.

Third criterion, on the level of students after training: 100% of students graduating from vocational secondary schools reach level 2/5, college students reach level 3/5 of the national vocational skills standards, have IC3 IT level or equivalent or higher, English score of 300 TOEIC points or equivalent or higher, for international and ASEAN vocational students, English score of 450 TOEIC points or equivalent or higher and have their degrees and certificates recognized by prestigious educational and training organizations in the ASEAN region or internationally. To achieve IC3 IT level, the school will increase the time students spend studying IT, adjust the IT training program, organize IT training for teachers according to international standards, cooperate with IIG to assess students' IT level before graduation. To achieve the required foreign language proficiency is a huge challenge, so it is necessary to increase the time spent studying English, apply an English training program according to TOEIC standards (to equip learners with English at work), and focus on communication and specialized English.

Fourth criterion, on quality assessment: The school meets level 3 of the vocational college quality assessment standards; 100% of the training occupations meet the program quality assessment standards. Currently, the school has been assessed for the vocational college quality in 2008 and 2013 and has achieved level 3; welding and metal cutting occupations have achieved the training program quality assessment. With this criterion, the school will strive to achieve level 3 training quality assessment at a higher level and in 2015 the school will assess the training program quality of 2 occupations: industrial electricity and electronics, the remaining occupations will be assessed in 2016, 2017, by 2018 all occupations will have their training program quality assessed.

Fifth criterion, regarding teachers and lecturers: 100% of teachers meet the prescribed standards, have IC3 IT level or equivalent or higher, English language proficiency of 350 TOEIC points or equivalent or higher. Of which, teachers teaching key occupations have English language proficiency of 450 TOEIC points or equivalent or higher. To achieve this criterion, the school has developed a training plan to foster IT proficiency according to IC3 standards for teachers and managers.

Sixth criterion, on school management: 100% of the school's management staff are certified in vocational management. Management activities and training programs for key occupations are digitized and simulated according to advanced software technologies in the world. Currently, most of the school's management staff have undergone vocational management courses domestically and internationally. Management activities and training programs for key occupations have been digitized and applied application software. However, to meet the requirements of regional and international integration, the school has planned to train and update management knowledge for the management staff.

In 2015, the school is implementing the third phase project of the Korean Government, worth 6 million USD, with counterpart capital of 33 billion VND from Nghe An province. The project is the support of the Korean Government for Vietnam, Nghe An province, the recognition of the school's performance is the premise for the implementation of the project to build a high-quality vocational school in the coming time.

Nguyen Duy Nam

(Principal of Vietnam - Korea Vocational College of Technology)