On the 15.04.2015, the first meeting of project steering committee – Vocational Training for Waste Water Sector took place in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the meeting, there were the representatives of project steering committee from following organizations: General Directorate of Vocational Training/Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (GDVT), Ministry of Construction, Ho Chi Minh Vocational College of Technology (HVCT), Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association, HCM Urban Drainage One Member limited Company, Ba Ria Vung Tau Urban Sewerage and Development One Member limited Company, Binh Duong Water Supply – Sewerage – Environment One Member limited Company, Khanh Hoa Water Supply – Sewerage Joint Stock Company, Can Tho Water Supply Sewerage One Member Limited Company, Programme Reform of TVET in Vietnam – Activity field 3: “Vocational Training for the Waste Water Sector (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH – GIZ).

In his speech, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Duong Duc Lan, Director General of General Directorate for Vocational Training, appreciated the support of the German Government in vocational training sector in general, and particularly emphasized that Germany is the first country supporting Vietnam in vocational training in environmental field. Mr. Duong Duc Lan expressed confidence that the project for cooperative vocational training on sewage engineering technician will have positive impact for scaling up cooperative modes and provide qualified technical workforce for waste water sector in the future.

Implemented from 2013, “Vocational training for the Wastewater Sector ’’, a component of the German-Vietnamese “Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam” established by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) aims at supporting the Vietnamese Government in the provision of demand-oriented training, increasing the qualified labor force for wastewater sector.

Mrs. Gunda Roestel, Director of SEDD highlighted necessary of environmental protection in parallel with economic development. According to the targets to the development and modernization of the wastewater sector issued by Vietnamese Government, many wastewater treatment plans will be built with huge investment for infrastructure and equipment, therefore, capacity development for technical workforce enable to operate and maintain the invested plants is very important.

At the meeting, Dr. Nguyen Thị Hang, Principal of the Ho Chi Minh Vocational College of Technology (HVCT), confirmed commitment of HVCT to support to the success of project implementation and to collaborate closely with enterprises in implementing training modules of the pilot sewage engineering technician class in the time coming.

Summarizing remarkable achieved results of Component “Vocational training for wastewater sector’’ in period from 12/2013 to 04/2015, Mrs. Phan Hoang Mai, team leader , highlighted that the project supported the Ho Chi Minh Vocational College of Technology, the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association as well as sewage companies in formulating a completed occupational standard of Sewage Engineering Technician. On the base of this standard, the project completed a framework of the pilot cooperative vocational training program with 3-year vocational college degree oriented to German standard. Besides, four further training courses on sewage engineering and two further training courses on pedagogical skills were organized to improve professional competence of teachers and in-company trainers enable them to teach and instruct students for the pilot training program in the time coming.

In the meeting, representatives of sewage companies expressed commitment to send the in-company trainers to attend next further training courses and to arrange appropriate working time for these in-company trainers during their instructing students at companies.

The participating stakeholders unanimously agreed about operation plan from April to December 2015 and assigned representatives of their organizations participating in working groups to increase efficiency in undertaking specified professional tasks.

At the end of meeting, the members of project steering committee with deeply understanding the objectives and the significance of the field of activity signed “Cooperation Agreement” to set out the principles of cooperation between the signatories. This is basis for the coordination of relevant stakeholders in piloting the cooperative vocational training program for Sewage Engineering Technician.