Technical occupations such as mechatronics and electronics have long been considered male-exclusive occupations. However, more and more female students are penetrating the preconceived gender barriers to pursue their passion in such occupations.
On April 1, 2023, Ninh Thuan Vocational College organised an experience day for 150 female students from local high schools with the support of the Vietnamese-German Programme “Reform of TVET in Viet Nam. Here, students could learn information about training programmes and explore career prospects in technical fields, through numerous exciting activities at the college.
Technical occupations are still perceived as more suitable for men and significant barriers to girls’ participation in the field still exists. With the theme “Follow you passion, choose the right occupation” the event encourages young people to choose a profession based on personal interests and capacities not on gender stereotype.
The event started with a talk show with a panel of college rectors, alumni, and partner business representatives. Female students enthusiastically asked the panelists several questions about the technical training environment, incentive policies for female students, and advantages of working as a female technician in the workplace.
After that, the students went on a workshop tour, where they got to learn about each technical training programme offered at the college, especially those related to renewable energy. In addition, the students enjoyed interactive experiences in the tour: performing basic operations of an electrical system, controlling robots, and fixing minor errors in the controlling panel, etc…
Ms Truong Tieu Bang – from Truong Chinh High School shared her thoughts of the experience, “The workshop tour was a thrill; not only did it give me useful information, it also made me realise these machineries were not as complicated for women to operate as I thought”.
Mr. Truong Ngoc Hoang, Education Manager, Festo VN Co., Ltd commented: “Festo is always welcoming towards female technicians. Women are often very meticulous and persuasive towards customers as well as partners in the technical fields, which leads to the company successfully securing more business deals. Currently, the number of female technicians in Festo is quite small, so Festo always tries to recruit as many high-skilled female technicians as possible”.
The event is supported by the Development Partnership (DPP) Vocational Training Center for Renewable Energies – Wind and Solar Technology. The DPP is implemented jointly by the cooperation partners Vietnam Industries Building Services JSC (IBS), Festo Didactic SE, Schneider Electric Vietnam, Ninh Thuan Vocational College (NTVC), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), represented by the Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam, and supported by the develoPPP.de programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The objective of the DPP is to establish vocational training for wind and solar energy in selected regions in Viet Nam and to build up a network among predestined TVET institutes, competent to offer initial and further training in renewable energies that is inclusive and meets the industry demand.
