The Round-Table Discussion on Enterprise-Based Internship Program was organized on 23 November 2009 in Ho Chi Minh City to introduce the enterprise-based Internship Model that has been successfully piloted at WIHA (Song Cong- Thai Nguyen) and discuss on the possibility of implementing such cooperation at other European enterprises/factories in Vietnam.

Presenting at the Discussion were representatives from General Directory of Vocational Training (GDVT), VVTA, German Development Cooperation (GTZ), Euro Charm, EBG and German Business Association (GBA) and nine FDI enterprises.

The German company “WIHA-Tools for Professionals”, with support of GTZ, has successfully implemented an internship program in SongCong-ThaiNguyenProvince in cooperation with the local Vietnam-GermanyIndustrialCollege. The evaluation of the program was conducted on WIHA instructors, teachers and interns from Vietnam-GermanyIndustrialCollege shows:

1. Set objectives of the program were met;
2. All of the interviewed stakeholders recommended that the program be continued;
3. Teachers from VDIC confirmed that the training at WIHA shredded lights into discrepancies between training provided at the college and production reality and thus adjusted their teaching and syllabuses to be more relevant.
4. The program was rated as the most important part of the overall training curriculum that they did. The three significant areas that they gained from the internship include (1) being familiar to production working conditions and requirements; (2) improvement of practical skills and (3) better working attitude and pride in the job that they did.

The encouraging results of this internship program and the expected outcomes of similar programs for the industry and vocational training institutions have prompted GTZ to initiate more internship projects in other companies.

At the discussion, the representatives shared their experience of cooperating with vocational training institutions, expressed their commitments and possible efforts to promote enterprise-based internship programs. They also made valuable comments on the content and organizational method for such prospective programs.

Following the discussion, GBA, in collaboration with the Vietnamese-German Development Cooperation Program “Promotion of TVET Vietnam”, will conduct a survey on enterprises’ requirements of skills, knowledge and working attitudes to their prospective workers. The collected information will be used to redesign the concept of internship programs. The participants also suggested that a network of European enterprises, which are willing to actively participate in providing practice-oriented training for students from vocational schools, be established through business associations such as Euro Charm, GBA and VICC. Similarly, Promotion of TVET Vietnam will make a list of its partner vocational training institutions and provide relevant information to enterprises for possible cooperation in enterprise-based internship programs.

The results of the Round-Table discussion will be used to compile a manual provides guidelines on the content and method of implementing enterprise-based practical training and internship programs for vocational training institutions and enterprises in Vietnam.