The System Advisory programme component of the Vietnamese – German Cooperation in TVET, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), is on the way to achieving its overall goal: to improve the performance and demand-orientation of TVET in Vietnam in a sustainable way. The project has provided important results for the Vietnamese efforts in further developing the TVET System. Due to the continuing high demand for System Advisory services in TVET, advisory and capacity building measures will be carried on, intensified and broadened in the System Advisory project’s second phase.

Those are the findings of a progress review presented at a workshop on August 12th in Hanoi to Vietnamese stakeholders (GDVT, VVTA, VCCI), donors like EC/ILO as well as to representatives of German Development Cooperation implementing agencies (like InWEnt and CIM). The findings were compiled from 02.08.2010 to 13.08.2010 by Dr. Klaus Meininger, senior planning officer from GTZ headquarters, and by an external consultant in discussions with the relevant stakeholders of TVET in Vietnam. At the ensuing workshop, moderated by Technical Advisor Beate Dippmar from GTZ and chaired by Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) of the Vietnamese-German System Advisory project Dr. Horst Sommer, the collected results were shared and future key activities in System Advisory discussed. Purpose of the progress review was to analyze the major achievements of the first phase and to agree on the main fields of intervention for the next phase of the System Advisory project.

Opening up the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Tien Dung, General Director of GDVT and national project director of the System Advisory project, praised its capacity building measures both as promoting labour-market orientation of the TVET System as well as employability of labourers. In light of entering the “2011-2015 breakthrough period” of TVET in Vietnam, he stressed the importance of continuing and intensifying System Advisory activities of Vietnamese-German Development Cooperation in TVET.

The Consultants consequently assessed the major activities of the System Advisory project. One important area of intervention was to provide political advisory services to GDVT, for instance by supporting the development of the TVET strategy 2010-2020. Another significant area of activity was to further develop the capacity of GDVT staff. Here, for instance, GDVT personnel took part in a one-year further training in Germany, implemented by InWEnt. Also, developing concepts for cooperation between state and business-sector and for financing of TVET have been a major aspect of System Advisory services. Finally, cooperation with the Vietnam Vocational Training Association (VVTA) took shape for instance in jointly organizing and carrying out awareness raising activities for TVET. In general, continuous and ad-hoc advisory services to GDVT management and in the areas of donor coordination as well as transferring sector policy to the VT partner institutes and feeding the experiences of those institutes back into system-level activities ensure the sustainability of the project’s measures.

Overall, the consultants affirmed, the System Advisory project has made significant contributions to the reform of vocational training in Vietnam. For phase 2, they thus recommended continuing on the current path, while further deepening and widening efforts. For instance, advisory services to GDVT on involving Vietnamese TVET stakeholders in the dialogue on TVET reform are to be continued, further concepts for training of teachers developed, and support to GDVT in coordinating donor activities intensified.

These recommendations were then discussed by the workshop’s participants against the backdrop of current challenges and developments in Vietnamese TVET. Mdm. Nguyen Thi Hang, chairwomen of VVTA, for instance underscored the importance of promoting the awareness of enterprises of their own responsibility for vocational training. Furthermore, she called for further efforts in including VCCI, Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, VGCL and other organizations as well as national independent experts in the stakeholder dialogue on TVET reform. In general, the discussion highlighted that all TVET stakeholders approved of the System Advisory project’s past activities and areas of intervention, strongly supported their continuation, demanded their further expansion and mutually agreed on the future strategic orientation of the project.

Recommendations and discussions are and will be included into the further planning measures for the next phase of System Advisory activities, laid down in a joint result paper of the review among GTZ and GDVT.