Dr Horst Sommer, Director of the bilateral “Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam” , was invited to a working session with Madam Nguyen Hoa Hiep, Vice President of Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee and Mr Huynh Van Tinh, Director of Dong Nai Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DoLISA). Leaders of the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department of Education and Training, the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Finance in Dong Nai also took part in the meeting.

The participants of the meeting agreed that, based on the fruitful cooperation in 2017, the cooperation and coordination with Dong Nai People’s Committee and DoLISA will be intensified this year. The focus will be on stronger involvement of the business sector in the development of occupational standards and training programmes, in the delivery of training as well as in assessment at the two supported TVET institutes LILAMA 2 Technical and Technology College and Vocational College of Machinery and Irrigation (VCMI). With the support of Dong Nai People’s Committee and DoLISA, the results and experiences will be spread to other TVET institutes in the province.

Madam Nguyen Hoa Hiep, Vice President of Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee, highlighted: “Capacity development of TVET teaching and management staff is the core of a high quality TVET system.” She fully supports the efforts to support LILAMA 2 and VCMI as Centres of Excellence which will offer further training for teaching staff of other TVET institutes, as this will be the most sustainable way of improving the competencies of teaching staff in Dong Nai and nationwide.

Subsequently, a separate meeting with Mr Huynh Van Tinh, Director of DoLISA Dong Nai and representatives of DoLISA departments, rectors of LILAMA 2, VCMI and two provincial colleges was held to discuss and agree upon a specific plan that GIZ, DoLISA Dong Nai and the colleges will jointly implement to promote the engagement of the business sector in TVET, to intensify further training of teaching staff as well as to support greening of TVET institutes in Dong Nai.