Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and General Department of Vocational Education signed minutes of cooperation agreement

Attending the Conference were Mr. Nguyen Van Than - Member of the National Assembly, Chairman of Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, Deputy Minister Le Quan, General Director Nguyen Hong Minh and Deputy General Directors of the Department of Vocational Education, and about 700 leaders of vocational education institutions in the North from Quang Tri and above, leaders of the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs and representatives of ministries and branches.

This year's conference set out four tasks and solutions to focus on promoting enrollment in 2018, namely: Completing the policy on education and training, facilitating the enrollment; Continue to promote communication on vocational education and counsel enrollment; Well organizing enrollment and training with the labor market. There is an important new point: linking enrollment, training organization with employment and labor market: Strengthening statistical work; setting up a system of forecasting the demand for human resources through vocational training with a forecast on the labor market to meet the integration requirements and the development of science and technology; Strengthening coordination between the agencies of vocational education management, employment, labor market from the central to local levels; enhancing close coordination between enrollment and after training to avoid students leaving school without jobs causing waste for families and society; Continue implementing 3-party mechanism: State - School - Enterprise; cooperating with business associations, corporations, large enterprises to recruit human resources through vocational training, especially in the areas that lacks of human resources (information technology, tourism, etc.); piloting some models of cohesion through this mechanism; coordinating with Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and other organizations... to organize conferences to contact businesses, large corporations, industrial zones to implement coordination activities; establishing a division of cooperation with enterprises in state management agencies and vocational training institutions; piloting the establishment of Industry Skills Council in a number of priority areas; building a model of public-private partnership (PPP) in the field of vocational education; encouraging vocational training institutions to actively approach and find businesses in the area to propose and sign cooperation programs (training cooperation contracts, training order contracts or cooperation agreements...); building a network of regular business partners for training and recruiting.

Speaking at the Conference, Deputy Minister Le Quan said that with the determination and unity in the whole system, the year 2017 is considered a successful year for enrollment, we have exceeded the planned targets. In 2018, the Ministry determined to be a breakthrough year of enrollment with a factor to improve the quality of training and job opportunities for graduates. If schools have high percentage of graduates having jobs, they will definitely attract more learners. In 2017, some schools have done this well with a commitment to learners after graduation with a job and a guaranteed salary, if they do not comply with the commitment, the school will refund tuition to learners. This year, vocational education institutions need to promote and have such strong commitments to create a breakthrough in enrollment. In addition, schools need to be proactive in connecting with businesses, implementing program and training standards of enterprises. The Ministry will co-operate with flexible educational institutions when negotiating with enterprises to sign many new training programs to meet the needs of enterprises. In addition to closely associated with enterprises in training, vocational education institutions will strengthen communication activities on enrollment, provide information on the professions and training levels that market needs are needed.

A new feature of this year's Conference of Admissions is the signing agreement of many important cooperation programs in the field of vocational education, namely: the agreement between the General Department of Vocational Education and Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and a number of professional associations.

Accordingly, the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the General Department of Vocational Education will enhance the role, responsibility and effectiveness of coordination in strengthening the connection between vocational training institutions and enterprises. According to the provisions of the Law on Vocational Education; we will promote cooperation and linkage between small and medium-sized enterprises and vocational training institutions to strengthen cohesion to improve the quality of vocational training, forming a coordination mechanism for both sides to join work on education and training effectively and sustainably; promoting the role and potential of small and medium enterprises in training activities, improving training quality; create the best conditions for small and medium enterprises to participate in vocational education activities.