Vocational schools have difficulty recruiting students.

Many difficulties

Khanh Hoa Medical College is one of the medical colleges with the largest number of training majors and occupations in the country, with 7 college majors and 2 intermediate majors. However, according to Mr. Tran Ngoc Thanh - Principal of the school, in recent years, the school's enrollment work has encountered many difficulties, on average each year only recruiting more than 50% of the planned target, even reaching only 30% in some years. Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the medical profession is considered a heavy, toxic, and dangerous profession, so it is rarely chosen by parents and students.

Students of Nha Trang College of Tourism take a practical exam on vocational skills.

Mr. Nguyen Doan Thanh - Principal of Nha Trang College of Tourism said that the social prejudice "learning a trade means failure" still exists; while career counseling in high schools is not effective, there is a lack of sustainable connection between middle schools, high schools and vocational training institutions. Many counseling programs only stop at the level of general introduction to occupations without in-depth analysis of market demand, income levels, specific requirements of each occupation, lacking actual data on employment trends, leading to emotional or outdated career orientation. In addition, counseling is often mass, paying little attention to assessing the capacity, personality and passion of each student; lacking scientific career testing tools to help students identify their strengths and suitable careers; there is little participation of businesses and industry experts in counseling. Students have little access to real work models, business environments, or meeting successful people in the profession.

According to Mr. Pham Ngoc Ninh - Principal of Nguyen Trai High School (Ninh Hoa town), in the past 5 years, most of the school's students have passed the university entrance exam. The general mentality of parents is that their children go to university, if they cannot, they will think of other directions. The 2018 General Education Program has experiential activities and career guidance as compulsory content, but for a long time, it has mainly focused on theory, while practical field trips for students to approach the profession are difficult to apply regularly.

Need for synchronous solutions

At the conference on vocational education enrollment in 2025 organized by the Department of Education and Training recently, representatives of schools discussed and proposed many solutions to promote and further improve the effectiveness of vocational education. Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Vice Principal of Nha Trang College of Technology proposed a number of forms of cooperation between high schools and vocational education institutions such as: Organizing career counseling at high schools, helping students understand the training professions of the school; organizing for students to visit and experience the learning environment and modern facilities of the school; seminars on professions that are in high demand in the labor market; vocational competitions, science and technology innovation competitions, extracurricular activities, helping students develop skills and talents. In addition, it is necessary to share information on scholarship policies, tuition support, job opportunities for students...

Mr. Nguyen Doan Thanh said that the breakthrough solution for vocational education needs to focus on fundamentally innovating career guidance from junior high school, through the model of visiting and experiencing reality. In addition, building a dual training program (studying while working) with the participation of large tourism corporations and businesses; creating a multi-sectoral coordination mechanism between the Department of Education and Training, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, vocational schools and businesses. In propaganda work, it is necessary to build a multi-channel communication campaign on television, press and social media platforms with clear messages; organizing exchange programs and seminars with the participation of businesses, experts and successful people from vocational training... According to Mr. Pham Ngoc Ninh, colleges should have solutions to support career guidance activities in many forms. For example, in addition to going directly to high schools to provide career counseling, or creating conditions for high school students to visit and experience their schools, schools need to promote communication in communes, wards, community learning centers... to gradually change the community's awareness and thinking about vocational training.

According to Mr. Van Dinh Tri - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, promoting enrollment counseling and career guidance for high school students is an urgent task, requiring participation, close coordination and synchronization between vocational education institutions and general schools. Currently, the vocational education sector has been transferred to the Department of Education and Training for management, which is a favorable condition, creating a foundation for synchronous and unified implementation of this work. The Department will research and issue orientation plans for schools in coordinating implementation and advising on support policies for students pursuing vocational training. At the same time, strengthen the connection of enrollment and career guidance between general schools and vocational schools in the coming time...

The province currently has 20 vocational training institutions, including 4 colleges, 10 intermediate schools, and 6 vocational training centers. In addition, there are 12 vocational training institutions, including 1 university participating in college-level training in the field of art and enterprises registered to provide elementary vocational training. The total annual enrollment of the vocational training system in the province is more than 30,000 students. Of which, college level has more than 4,300 students with 29 training occupations; intermediate level has more than 6,300 students with 33 training occupations; the rest are elementary.

H.NGAN

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/xa-hoi/202504/truong-nghe-kho-tuyen-sinh-4270f21/