There has about 2,000 vocational education and training institutions across the country. Therefore, creating good condition as well as a corridor to implement mechanisms and policies in vocational education and training will help raise awareness of the society about the important role of vocational education and training in human resource development of skilled workers

Develop skilled human resources

Sharing on the online exchanging program with the topic "Solutions to develop skilled human resources and improve national competitiveness" co-organized by Nhan Dan Newspaper and directorate of Vocational Training and Education - DVET (Ministry of Labor, invalids and Social Affairs), Dr. Truong Anh Dung, Director General of DVET said that development of vocational education and training and skills is not merely education to equip knowledge, working attitude and skills for learners but also the problem of labor productivity and competitiveness of enterprises each country. Therefore, on May 28, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 24/CT-TTg on promoting the development of skilled human resources, contributing to improving labor productivity and increasing national competitiveness in the new situation (hereinafter referred to as Directive No.24).

Mr. Truong Anh Dung also emphasized on three groups of issues that require more attention specified in the Directive No.24.

Firstly, Vietnam is striving to have its vocational education and training with the same level of ASEAN-4 countries by 2030, and reach the level of G20 countries by 2045.

To achieve this goal, ministries and localities need to focus on developing human resources with occupational skills; strengthening digital transformation and online training, focusing on re-training and regular training of the workforce to make dramatic changes in the size, quality and efficiency of vocational education and training; ensure that learners have professional skills, digital skills, soft skills, entrepreneurial skills and foreign languages… to adapt to the requirements of the labor market; do well forecasting human resource needs by occupation and level.

Along with that, it’s necessary to develop and update open data on skilled laborers in each field and profession; review and restructure the system of vocational education and training institutions; quickly stabilize the organization, diversify investment resources, ensure quality and efficiency of the vocational training institutions after the restructuring and reorganizing.

In particular, we need to strengthen the close linkage among the three "parties": state - school - enterprise in the vocational education and training activities; to attach importance to the content of vocational education development, human resource development with occupational skills in the plans, programs, projects, and projects of development of industries and localities; to prioritize budget allocation for vocational education.

Secondly, Vietnam is implementing many programs, schemes and activities associated with vocational education reformation.

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to lead the implementation of the national qualification framework for vocational education and training; development of projects on digital transformation and online teaching in vocational education and training, project on developing skills of applying information technology for the workforce; reviewing, amending and supplementing the list of industries and occupations that must use employees with national occupational skills certificates, promulgating standards on job training workers, assessment of occupational skills in enterprises and organize training and retraining according to the issued standards; promulgating a list of industries and occupations requiring trained laborers under a roadmap to standardize the workforce and integrate into the world; strengthening the capacity of the national occupational skills evaluation, recognition and certification system; strongly promoting the movement of  skills competitions at all levels; researching and piloting establishment of industry or skill councils; proposing “Vietnamese labor skills”.

Third, we are encouraging enterprises to participate in vocational education and training activities.

To encourage the establishment of vocational education and training institutions or opening vocational training classes at the workplace to improve qualifications and occupational skills for the employees; to encourage enterprises to coordinate with vocational training institutions in training vocational education qualifications and other training programs in accordance with law; appoint qualified people to participate in training, developing the list of professions and skills; national occupational skills standards; outcome standards; training program ... in vocational education and training.

At the same time, it’s necessary to provide accurate and timely information and reports on training and employment needs by profession and labor recruitment needs of enterprises

Dr. Truong Anh Dung add right after Directive No. 24 was issued, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training have developed plan to implement this important Directive.

Specifically, MOLISA issued the Decision No. 980/QD-LĐTBXH on August 11, 2020 on implementation of the Directive No. 24. The plan includes four groups of contents: developing and completing policies to develop vocational education and training; strengthening communication in vocational education and training; improving the quality and effectiveness of vocational education and training and developing plans, programs and projects on the development of vocational education in the period of 2021-2030.

DVET issued Decision No.607/QĐ-TCGDNN on September 21, 2020 on the implementation of the Plan to implement the Decision No. 980/QD-LĐTBXH Accordingly, DVET has deployed four groups of content into 24 specific tasks and assigned to departments and units of DVET to implement these tasks.

Along with the above specific action plans, many ministries and localities also issued detailed plans to implement this Directive. This shows the synchronous integration of all levels, sectors, from central to local level.

Nationwide, there are nearly 2,000 vocational education and training institutions. However, one of the difficulties is assessing the needs of the current labor market, or in the next 5-10 years. These problems must be forecasted as specified in the Directive. How is the size of trained workers? How are industry structure and capacity requirements? Since then, institutions can organize the design of outcome standards and programs; continue to renew the conditions to ensure the training quality. More importantly, the linkage between school and enterprise is formed.

Standardization of the workforce for international integration

Regarding the requirement of Directive 24 to standardize the workforce for international integration, Dr. Pham Tat Thang, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Children and Children, In terms of management, the Government has recognized this issue early and clearly. Since 2016, the Prime Minister has issued Decision 1982 / QD-TTg approving the national qualification framework of Vietnam. This framework is compatible with the ASEAN region's qualifications.

During the implementation process, the Prime Minister continued to issue Directive 24, continuing to improve the quality of standardization of the workforce. The aim of the Directive is clearly defined, the policy stance is also very clear, but to implement it, requires the attention of the whole political system.

Directive No. 24 specifies the responsibilities of ministries and localities from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs; The Ministry of Education and Training to localities.

In order to enhance skills efficiently, standardize skills of the workforce, there some things to do at two levels: national and local level.

At the national level, for governing agency, the Directive No.24 clearly defined that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs which is responsible for, on be haft of the State governing labor, employment and vocational education and training needs to develop a series of regulations on institutions, legal frameworks, regulations on occupational skills standards, implement international expert programs in vocation education and training including: training, facilities, equipment, and teachers to assess the occupational skills of employees under the standards.

For localities, the Directive No. 24 states clearly, localities have two important tasks. The first task is to focus on investment in improving the capacity of vocational education and training institutions. The second one is to encourage enterprises to create mechanisms and policies to use the trained workforce and provide them to the market through training.

The locality also needs to unify the management of the streaming of students after graduating from upper secondary school so that they can pursue vocational training to higher education levels. Vocational education and training must improve its capacity according to regional and international standards. This is quite a comprehensive regulation, but in order to implement it, it will be necessary to implement synchronizedly and comprehensively from the central to local levels.