“The criteria catalogue of TVET institutes of High Quality and international standard will help increase the competitiveness of the manpower and of the economy of Viet Nam, in particular, via institutionalising the cooperation with the business sector, including enterprises, chambers and sector associations”, Associate Professor Cao Van Sam, Deputy Director of the General Directorate of Vocational Training (GDVT) of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said in his opening speech at the Final Workshop on the results of the Revision of the Criteria for High Quality TVET Institutes that took place in Hanoi on July 11^th, 2017.

The final review workshop was jointly organised in the framework of the trilateral cooperation between the Viet Nam Vocational Training Accreditation Agency (VVTA/GDVT), Deutsche Gessellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) “Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam” and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Viet Nam in the field of Monitoring and Evaluation. Its objective was to reflect on the outcome of a 12-months scientific process dedicated to the review and revision of the Criteria for High Quality Vocational Education and Training Institutes and High Quality TVET Institutes of International Standard (COEs). Furthermore, the objective was to present the proposed catalogue of revised criteria and indicators for High Quality TVET Institutes and COEs which were promulgated under the Decision 761/QD-TTg dated 23/5/2014 by the Prime Minister.

The workshop participants encompassed accreditation experts and leaders from participating TVET institutes, GDVT, Viet Nam Association of Vocational Education and Training and Social Works (VAVET & SOW), international donor organisations such as Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the international cooperating partners GIZ and KOICA. The feedback of the participants will be considered by policy makers from GDVT, MoLISA who will review the proposed revised criteria accordingly.

”The revised criteria will help assure the demand orientation of TVET offers in Viet Nam” Ms. Britta van Erckelens, Deputy Head of the Vietnamese-German “Programme Reform of TVET  in Viet Nam” implemented by GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) emphasized in her opening speech.

Accordingly, the criteria should serve as a guiding tool for TVET institutes in ensuring the demand orientation of training offers by closely working together with the business sector, including enterprises, chambers and associations, in developing occupational standards and training programmes, jointly delivering training and the assessment and certification process.

The piloted criteria catalogue consisted of two parts: while criteria one to five including i) Practice- and demand-oriented training implementation; ii) Close cooperation with enterprises in training; iii) High competencies of teachers and managers; iv) Efficient organizational set-up and management ; v) Sufficient financial means, criterion six  contains additional functions a TVET institute of international standard (CoE). These functions include further training for teaching staff of other TVET institutes in the system; advisory service for management staff management staff of other TVET institutes with regards to organisation of labour-market relevant training offers; hub for national and international networks for TVET; partner for TVET reform and applied research activities. The applicability of the criteria was tested during the pilot phase in frame of an internal and an external audit of 5 TVET institutes.

Assessors and TVET institutes’ staff who conducted the audits received hands-on training and through-out-the-process coaching.  To ensure the quality, the pilot audits were accompanied by experts of VVTAA, GIZ and KOICA who also provided advice whenever needed. Furthermore, the catalogue of criteria, standards and indicators as well as the guideline on internal and external evaluation were reviewed according to the results of the audits and introduced to the audience at the workshop

In intensive discussion rounds feedback was provided to VVTAA including structural as well as detailed comments on the various criteria proposed as well as the recommendation to include Criteria 6, Further Functions, in the final draft of the proposal of the revised criteria for Decision 761.

The criteria catalogue and the implementation guidelines can serve not only as accreditation tool for the state management agency but also as quality assurance tool for TVET institutes which is regarded as an advantage of the criteria catalogue.

The workshop was another proof of the effective and fruitful cooperation among VVTAA/GDVT, KOICA and GIZ in Viet Nam in general and concerning this particular topic. “The cooperation, ultimately, contributes to the collective efforts of achieving the objectives of the TVET Development Strategy period 2011-2020 and particularly of the “Proposal on Reforming and Increasing Quality of Vocational Education and Training until 2025”” as mentioned by Dr. Pham Vu Quoc Binh, Director of VVTAA.