Promote career guidance to avoid wasting human resources

Career guidance and student orientation are indispensable activities in high schools. Through career guidance, students improve their knowledge to choose suitable majors and careers, avoiding dropping out halfway.

High school students participate in Career Counseling Day.

There are still shortcomings in implementation and coordination.

According to Director of the Department of Secondary Education Nguyen Xuan Thanh: On May 14, 2018, the Prime Minister approved the Project "Career education and orientation of student streaming in general education for the period 2018-2025" (Project 522). The project emphasizes innovation in the content and methods of career education, linking with production practices and social needs, while promoting measures to stream students after lower secondary school (JHS) and high school (THPT) into vocational education.

Implementing Project 522, the implementation of career guidance programs in junior high schools and high schools has achieved many results, marking an important step forward in the innovation of general education in the direction of career orientation. Specifically, at the junior high school level, the rate of schools organizing career guidance programs linked to local production, business and service practices reached 68.52%, exceeding the set target of 55%. At the high school level, 75.93% of schools implemented it, exceeding the initial target of 60%. The rate of schools with teachers concurrently performing career guidance tasks at the junior high school level reached 74.07%, at the high school level reached 77.78%, exceeding the set target.

Career orientation and advocacy activities have been widely organized to raise awareness among students, parents and society about the importance of career education and student orientation. A recent highlight is the integration of STEM education into subjects, helping students to recognize and orient their careers early through practical activities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This has helped improve students' applicability and adaptability to future work fields.

Despite achieving many remarkable results, according to Director Nguyen Xuan Thanh, in the process of implementing the project, there are still many shortcomings and problems related to the lack of synchronization between regions, limitations in documents, support tools, facilities, human resources, implementation costs, coordination between schools and families, and the interest and awareness of the whole society.

According to data released by the Ministry of Education and Training on the 2024 admissions, the number of candidates who confirmed their admission to university in the first round of 2024 was 551,479 out of a total of 673,586 admitted candidates. Thus, the number of admitted candidates who dropped out of the first round was about 122,000.

In fact, the university and college admission season in recent years has seen many cases of students with high high school graduation exam results but choosing to study at colleges, vocational schools or being admitted to universities but not confirming their enrollment. Not a few students who are studying at universities have stopped to study vocational training, or study abroad... because they realized that their chosen major is not suitable.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong commented: In the context of a rapidly aging population, career education and orientation for students must be carefully researched, implemented fundamentally, systematically, comprehensively, and appropriately in accordance with the context and applied in practice.

Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong emphasized the important role of career education and orientation for students, and stated that in reality, this work must be done better to avoid wasting the country's human resources.

Changing perceptions about apprenticeship

Accompanying students through many exam seasons, Ms. Dinh Thi Thuy Dung - teacher at Bat Bat High School (Hanoi) shared that career counseling is the "key" to help students open many doors after graduation. For final year junior high school students and high school students, career counseling is even more important. At this time, they really need to be counseled and oriented to choose the right career that suits their abilities, interests and social needs. Students also need to realize that university is not the only path to success. If their learning ability cannot meet the requirements, they can choose other directions such as vocational training, studying abroad, exporting labor... Career counseling does not have to wait until the end of the school year to be implemented but needs to be implemented continuously and throughout.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, Thai Nguyen University of Education, in recent times, career guidance and orientation for students have been implemented flexibly and proactively integrated in general education institutions. In particular, career guidance is implemented through teaching cultural subjects, through experiential activities, organizing learning through learning projects, start-up competitions, science and technology, STEM festivals, etc.

Vocational education methods are implemented in the direction of creating a friendly learning environment and problematic situations to encourage students to actively participate in learning activities, self-discover their abilities and aspirations. Implementing the differentiated education motto, ensuring students have access to careers, preparing for the stage of training quality human resources.

To improve career guidance, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen proposed to improve the legal framework on streaming education, develop policies to support students, improve post-high school training programs, promote the participation of the community and businesses, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of high school student streaming. Along with that, the monitoring and evaluation mechanism should improve the effectiveness of the program.

Professor Nguyen Van Minh, former Principal of Hanoi National University of Education, said that it is necessary to change society's perception of vocational training. The word "vocational" goes with the word "career", so it is necessary to focus on output policies for the careers that have been oriented in schools as well as training after streaming. Vocational training must meet the needs of society and ensure fairness. Only then can we change perceptions and convince society.

With the viewpoint that career education and orientation must start from the needs of students, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Anh, former Principal of Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary and High School, shared that if students want to have needs and interests in career orientation, 100% of teachers in schools must have full awareness of this work. This is also consistent with the orientation and goals of the 2018 General Education Program...

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/thuc-day-huong-nghiep-de-khong-lang-phi-nguon-nhan-luc-10296082.html