The Vietnamese “National Green Growth Strategy”, approved in 2012, addresses a number of areas such as economy, science and technology, society and most importantly human resources development, and clearly acknowledges the complexity of the issue involved in “Green TVET”. The greening of the economy implies changes in vocational skills and/or emergence of new occupations. In the course of this process new skills profiles develop in many existing occupations – up to so called “Green Jobs”. Related employment and “Green Jobs” within change processes towards a green economy will be created by business sector and companies. Therefore these stakeholders have to be precisely addressed and involved in processes of development of new or adaption of existing occupational profiles, with the goal to reflect new requirements resulted from “green” economy.

An 18-member delegation headed by Associate Professor Duong Duc Lan- General Director of General Directorate of Vocational Training (GDVT) came to Germany for a study tour focusing on selected issues of “Green TVET” from 5 to 14 May 2015. Participating in this Green TVET Study Tour were leaders and representatives of related departments from Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Investment and Planning (MPI), Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD), Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), General Department of Vocational Training (GDVT), Lilama 2 Technical and Technology College and Vocational College of Machinery and Irrigation (VCMI).

On one hand, the Study Tour offered the participants from different ministries and institutions insights into German existing approaches to Green Growth. On the other hand, technological developments and implications related to TVET were introduced during the tour. Although “green technologies” such as biomass and solar energy were introduced, the main focus, however, was how these technologies influenced the development or change of curricula, the adjustment of already existing trades or even the development of new skills and occupational areas.

During the study tour, the delegation had working visits to a wide range of organizations and professional associations, TVET institutions, Chamber of Crafts and Commerce and their respective training facilities and a number of “green companies” which were in need of highly skilled employees with newly developed “green skills and competences”. The delegation also met with representatives of Magdeburg City Government (one of the greenest cities in Germany), Ministry of Sciences and Economic Affairs of the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt, and high ranking delegates from Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

As being agreed by all members of the delegation, the Study Tour successfully contributed to a better and comprehensive understanding of the impact of new “green technologies” and a “greening economy” on the TVET sector. It also offered the delegation an appropriate framework for generating ideas related to “Green TVET” development in Vietnam for the bilateral Vietnamese-German cooperation in TVET in its existing fields of activity of “TVET System Advisory” and of the establishment of a “Center of Excellence for Green TVET”.

Snapshots of the “Green TVET” Study Tour