Vocational training in Nghe An: Difficult in both 'quantity' and 'quality'

Just learn the trade for free

Nghi Loc Economic and Technical College has 200 enrollment quotas for the intermediate level this year. However, up to this point, the school has only recruited 140 quotas. Number of studentstargetThe number of students in 2020 is also 50 lower than last year. Failure to recruit enough students will certainly affect the lives of school staff and teachers because the operating budget depends on the number of students.Admissionannual.

Students are divided into streams to participate in vocational training at the Bac Nghe An Economic and Technical College. Photo: MH

Mr. Luong Anh Tuan - Vice Principal of the school said: "Although Nghi Loc is a fairly large area, enrollment is not favorable because it is located next to many large-scale vocational schools in the province. In particular, if students are from communes on the outskirts of the city, they will often tend to study vocational training in Vinh.

On the contrary, students in Nghi Xuan and Nghi Thai areas often choose to study at vocational schools in Cua Lo town. The school's current enrollment sources are often concentrated in Nghi Van, Nghi Yen, Nghi Kieu and some communes bordering Dien Chau district. However, these communes are quite far from the school, and there is no bus route, so students are often hesitant to go to school far away..."

The school representative also admitted that the access between the vocational school and local schools is not regular, so every year the number of students in the stream and the number of students who want to learn a trade have not been fully reviewed and understood. Even the number of students studying at the district's Continuing Education Center are not interested in learning a trade at the school, although the distance between the two units is quite close.

At the Bac Nghe An College of Economics and Technology, enrollment in intermediate classes has been basically completed. Achieving the target is difficult, but retaining students is even more difficult. Currently, according to the school's statistics, each year nearly 20 vocational students drop out of school for reasons such as boredom with studying, being lured into work, or not having a clear career direction despite having studied a trade.

In addition, enrollment is only possible for students who are exempted from vocational training fees; although the school only has about 40 "self-funded" quotas each year, it has almost never been able to enroll students. Mr. Nguyen Nhat Quang - Head of the school's training department also said: "Usually to enroll a student for vocational training, we have to expand the area to Do Luong district.

During the enrollment process, teachers have to visit students' homes 4-5 times to promote, mobilize, and persuade them. However, when students are bored with studying, it is very difficult to mobilize them to return. The current problem is that many parents are not aware of vocational training, so they cannot orient their children about careers. Therefore, in many cases, after students have enrolled in school, we have to continue to advise and introduce careers for them to choose from."

Sewing class of Nghe An Ethnic Minority Secondary School. Photo: MH

In mountainous districts, vocational training recruitment is also very difficult, although teachers have "gone to every alley, knocked on every door" to mobilize students to go to school. Mr. Bui Hoang Bau - Director of the Quy Chau District Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center said: "For more than two years now, we have coordinated with the College of Economics - Industry - Handicraft to recruit intermediate level students who are in the stream and students studying high school in the area.

However, this plan only received support from students studying at Quy Chau High School with the form of both vocational training and cultural education. The rest, although every year, our survey shows that Quy Chau has hundreds of students who drop out after finishing grade 9, but it is still not able to recruit students. Currently, the entire center only has 33 students from three grades 10, 11, 12. Like this year, Quy Chau district has about 850 students graduating from junior high school. Of these, only about 600 students go to grade 10, we went to all the remaining 250 students' homes, but in the end, last year we were only able to recruit 5 students to study in the GDTX system and mobilize them to study intermediate vocational training."

In the province, there are currently 65 vocational training institutions with 9 colleges, 14 intermediate schools, 20 vocational training centers, and 22 institutions registered for vocational training activities. Of these, 3 schools were selected by the Government to invest in building high-quality schools, 16 schools were selected by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to invest in key occupations at different levels, with 13 international-level occupations, 9 ASEAN-level occupations, and 36 national-level occupations.

To encourage vocational training, Nghe An allocates tens of billions of VND each year to fund training targets. In 2020 alone, funding was provided for vocational training for more than 11,000 targets, including more than 1,700 targets for college level, nearly 5,000 targets for intermediate level and more than 4,600 targets for elementary level. In addition, the province also set more than 3,100 targets for self-funded training schools.

"Quantity" is high but "quality" is not guaranteed

Every year, Nghe An's vocational training enrollment is quite large, with nearly 20% of secondary school students being channeled to vocational training (about 8,000 9th graders). Along with that, Nghe An has nearly 40% of high school students not registering for university admission (nearly 10,000 12th graders).

However, in recent years, only a few vocational schools have done a good job in recruiting students. Part of the reason is that the schools currently do not meet the needs of learners, especially in terms of facilities, teaching equipment and especially the teaching staff.

Students who are both studying the Continuing Education program and participating in vocational training at the Quy Chau District Continuing Education Center. Photo: Duc Anh

At Nghe An Ethnic Boarding Secondary School, although the school currently has nearly 500 students studying 4 majors: Civil Electricity, Welding, Veterinary Medicine and Fashion Sewing, the number of teachers only meets about 70%, and for many majors the school has to hire guest lecturers from other schools to train.

At Nghi Loc Technical and Economic College, the number of students has been decreasing in recent years, partly due to teachers. Specifically, although the school currently has 12 vocational classes in 7 majors and occupations with about 400 students, the school's teaching staff only has 7 people, of which 3 are teachers for auto mechanics and repair, 1 is for welding, and 3 are for electricity. Due to a lack of teachers, the school is currently hiring guest teachers from other schools. Because there are not enough teachers, all school staff are currently being promoted to become homeroom teachers, with some even being homeroom teachers of 2 classes at the same time.

Currently, businesses have a large demand for skilled workers. However, many students still prefer to work instead of going to vocational school. Photo: MH

More specifically, the Que Phong District Continuing Education and Vocational Training Center, although it has been merged for nearly 3 years and has been performing the same function of teaching culture and vocational training, currently does not have any vocational teachers. In recent years, although the center has planned to coordinate the recruitment of intermediate vocational students, the implementation has encountered many difficulties and is not feasible.

Mr. Hoang Sy Tuyen - Head of Vocational Training Department - Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also said: Currently, the quality of trained labor in some occupations has not met the production, business and service requirements of enterprises and the labor market. In addition, the training capacity of some vocational training institutions is still limited, especially the facilities and training equipment are lacking, asynchronous, outdated...

In addition, the team of teachers and administratorsvocational educationThe lack of appropriate structure has affected the quality of training in vocational schools. On the other hand, the occupational structure between schools is still overlapping, unreasonable arrangement, only focusing on a few key occupations. Therefore, it leads to an imbalance in the enrollment process and "unhealthy competition" between vocational schools.

Currently, the rate of skilled labor in Nghe An is only 65%. Photo: MH

At the same time, the coordination and connection between vocational training institutions and enterprises is not tight, many enterprises do not clearly understand the rights and responsibilities in vocational training activities. In particular, the interests of skilled and unskilled workers are being "equalized" in salary payment in many units, making many workers not interested in vocational training.

My Ha