Within the frame of the TVET System Advisory Project, a component of the Vietnamese-German “Programme on Reform of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Viet Nam”, a workshop was organised on 2 March 2011, on Concept towards establishment of Centers of Excellence in TVET in Viet Nam.

Its importance and purpose

As explained in his welcome remarks, Dr. Horst Sommer, Programme Director and Coordinator of TVET Priority Area, the workshop aimed of coming to a joint understanding on the role, mandate, and core functions of Centers of Excellence which will form a substantial part of TVET system in future in Viet Nam according to the TVET Strategy.

Attending and contributing to the workshop were senior officials and national and international experts from Central Commission of Propaganda and Training, GDVT, GIZ, AFD (France), and especially leaders and representatives of two potential future CoEs: LILAMA2 Vocational College of Dong Nai province and Vocational College of Agricultural Engineering of Vinh Phuc province.

Dr. Nguyen Tien Dung, Director General of GDVT stressed that the workshop has a special importance because of its theme and time. Explaining this, he added that in order to implement various strategy and policy of the Party and the State on high quality labour force and TVET, it is necessary and urgent to establish a network of CoEs. And the workshop provided an opportunity for discussing about notion of “Center of Excellence”, the first-to-be issue that determines the pathway for relevant and further discussion about implementation at a later stage.

Content and focus of discussion

Together with draft Concept Paper towards Establishment of CoEs which was jointly prepared by GDVT and GIZ and provided to participants in advance, a presentation was made by GIZ consultant highlighting conceptual issues and proposal on functions of CoEs. The presentation was highly appreciated for its comprehensiveness, clearness and relevance. In response, participants actively contributed to the discussion, paid their attention and inputs to issues such as areas of specialization, international standards of CoEs, role of stakeholders, involved risks in establishing CoEs, etc. These are highly fundamental and not each and every of them could be discussed thoroughly in the frame of a workshop. Nevertheless, issues discussed inputs and comments provided, firstly, were important in laying down a background of understanding, and obviously, were very useful for further elaboration and fine-tuning the draft concept paper.

Next steps

As a result of active and fruitful discussion, many ideas were shared, discussed, and documented for reference and further analysis. It was agreed that a roundtable discussion will be organized as a next step for more in-depth discussion on key issues, update and further elaboration of draft concept paper.