When will vocational education become a level of national education?

On the morning of June 6, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) Dao Ngoc Dung was the first member of the Government to answer questions before the National Assembly. At the beginning of the session, 99 delegates registered to question Minister Dao Ngoc Dung.

Vocational education still needs innovation

Speaking before the questioning, Mr. Dung said that the issues of labor, employment, training, vocational education and management, and social insurance development are of national strategic significance, directly related to the daily meals and sleep of millions of people, workers and retirees. Unpredictable fluctuations in the world economy and the consequences of the pandemic have caused many businesses to cut labor and reduce production.

In that situation, the Party, the State and all levels of the industry have decided on many solutions, with the spirit of mutual love, the whole country has overcome difficulties, basically ensuring social security policies. With four groups of support policies, 120,000 billion VND has supported over 68 million people, workers and over 1.4 million employers.

"Production and business are facing many difficulties, employment issues are arising, requiring the industry to act quickly and respond promptly," said Mr. Dung.

Dialogue - When will vocational education become a level of national education? — National Assembly member Huynh Thi Anh Suong was the first to question.

After Mr. Dung's speech, the first person to participate in questioning National Assembly Delegate Huynh Thi Anh Suong (Quang Ngai delegation) asked: According to the report of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry's solution on vocational education is to have a policy to attract good students to vocational education.

"I request the Minister to give specific information about the above policies and when they will be implemented. When will vocational education be the level of education chosen by students in the national education system?", Ms. Suong questioned.

Responding, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said Vocational education is a level of education in the national education system, and is also a link between general education, vocational education and university education. The National Assembly has also completed related legal policies.

The current training scale is about 2 million university students and vocational students. Currently, the proportion of college students is 56%.

In fact, current vocational education in terms of both scale and quality still needs to be innovated and improved. Policies and incentives to encourage students to study vocational training also need much attention.

In fact, most students entering vocational schools often do not have the conditions to continue their studies, and want to quickly enter the labor market and work to earn an income. The number of students who study vocational courses according to their wishes is not large. Meanwhile, the majority of vocational students after graduation have stable jobs, the rate is up to 85%.

Redefining the quality of labor resources

Delegate Nguyen Thi Ha (Bac Ninh delegation) questioned: After more than 2 years of implementing the labor market development support program until 2030 according to Decision 176 of the Prime Minister, Vietnam's labor market has initially improved. However, the quality of the country's human resources is still low compared to many countries in the region. The rate of workers with degrees and certificates is only about 26%. So, how does the Minister evaluate the implementation process of the above labor market development support program? When will the quality of the country's human resources approach that of other countries in the region?

Dialogue - When will vocational education become a level of national education? (Figure 2). — Minister Dao Ngoc Dung answers questions from National Assembly deputies.

In response, the Minister said that the labor force aged 15 and over is about 55 million people; by the first quarter of 2023, the number of people participating in the labor market aged 15 and over will be 51.4 million people. The Vietnamese labor market has recently been formed and developed relatively quickly in terms of structure, scale, and future development.

However, skilled labor is still low, the number of workers trained in various forms is over 70% but the number with degrees and certificates is currently 26.4% (as of the first quarter of 2023), low compared to developed countries.

Recently, after the Central Resolution, especially Resolution 19, the Government issued Resolution 06 on developing the labor market in a flexible, modern, synchronous, effective and sustainable direction. The Resolution has outlined 9 groups of basic solutions from propaganda, awareness, policy development, implementation, etc.

Delegate To Van Tam (Kon Tum delegation) raised the issue that trained workers are a factor in creating labor productivity, and the percentage of workers evaluated based on certificates and diplomas is not high. Many workers have not been trained but are productive. They are trained by businesses, or through their own learning process. What is the Minister's opinion on this issue? Is it necessary to build a level of evaluation on this issue?

Dialogue - When will vocational education become a level of national education? (Figure 3). — National Assembly Delegate To Van Tam

Answering this question , Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that the opinion of delegate To Van Tam is correct. In reality, the rate of trained workers in our country is over 70%, with certificates over 26%. Also in practice, training with certificates has one content, the most important is professional skills, professional proficiency, and labor efficiency.

It can be seen that many workers do not have degrees but are highly skilled, learning a trade such as bronze casting in Ý Yên, Nam Định.

The Minister said: “We agree with the delegates, seeing that there is a comprehensive and complete view of this issue. There are cases where there is such expertise but why not organize for them? We have assigned the General Department of Vocational Education to coordinate and propose this issue with the view that there needs to be tools, evaluation criteria, and determination of labor quality and evaluation standards in the coming time . ”

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