In the frame of the component TVET for Waste Water Sector of the Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam further training course III was organised from 10th to 23rd January 2015 at Ho Chi Minh Vocational College of Technology (HVCT) for teachers from HVCT and in-company trainers from sewerage companies. The course aimed to improve the capacity of the two groups of participants in order to enable them to teach and instruct students in the pilot technical vocational training programme for “Sewage Engineering Technician” in the future.

The participants were five teachers of HVCT, and twenty selected engineers from sewerage Companies, which are involved in the cooperative vocational training programme:

Urban Drainage One Member Limited Company (UDC), Ba Ria Vung Tau Urban Sewerage and Development One Member Limited Company (BUSADCO), Binh Duong Water Supply Sewerage –Environment One Member Limited Company (BIWASE), Khanh Hoa Water Supply Sewerage Stock Company (KHAWASSCO), and Can Tho Water Supply Sewerage One Member Limited Company (CANTHOWASSCO).

Lecturers of the course were German experts and a Vietnamese expert with many years of experience in vocational training as well as in the wastewater sector: Mrs. Jana Böhm from the Center of vocational training of Sachsen, Mr. Martin Zinnow and Mr. Willy Lenk from Dresden Drainage Company, and Assoc. Prof.Dr. Bui The Dung – Director of CAD Company. During the course, Mrs. Jana Böhm introduced German advanced pedagogical methods to the teachers of HVCT, such as student oriented teaching methods, teaching with case studies, and preparing teaching and training materials. Besides, she also attended classes of all teachers and gave comments to the teachers in order to increase the effectiveness of the class and to encourae students to be more proactive in class.

At the same time, Assoc. Prof.Dr. Bui The Dung introduced the features of vocational training and explained how to design and implement vocational training phases at an enterprise to a group of in-company trainers. Based on this general theory, Lecturer – Willy Lenk instructed the in-company trainers to set-up a training process and training materials for the first week of a practical training phase at an enterprise, when in-company trainers receive the students and introduce the organisation structure, the infrastructure and facilities, as well as the personnel of their workplace to the students.

Regarding student management and evaluation, two groups of participants learnt to manage training records and criteria to evaluate students at an enterprise. Real case studies helped participants to understand the importance of interaction between teachers of a vocational training college and in-company trainers of sewerage companies In this way, they learned how to implement cooperative training in reality.

The second important part of the further training course was related to professional knowledge of wastewater treatment and drainage. The lectures focused on three main topics: Technique on controlling wastewater treatment and drainage systems, operating sand settling tanks and common equipment, such as pumps and air compressors. The practical work such as controlling, operating, maintaining equipment of a wastewater treatment and drainage system, the method of detecting and repairing failures in operation, as well as remarks on work safety were discussed with and clearly explained to the participants, before directly practicing with equipment at the workshop of HVCT.

At the end of the course, all participants made an assessment test according to the German standard and discussed the requirements for the following further training course.