On 4/12/2018 in Hanoi, the Meeting of the Development Partners in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector was co-organised by the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training (DVET), under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Hanoi and the Vietnamese German programme “Reform of TVET in Viet Nam”. With a focus on the topic “Industry Boards / Skills Councils in TVET”, the meeting drew the attention of almost 50 delegates from MOLISA, Embassies, International Development Agencies and other stakeholders working in this field. 

For many years, the cooperation with the business sector in TVET has been a priority concern of DVET and international development partners Various mechanisms have been piloted in order to enhance this cooperation, among them the establishment of different kinds of business and TVET stakeholder boards or councils on various levels. At the meeting, following DVET’s presentation about the status quo and efforts about strengthening the cooperation between TVET institutes and enterprises, participants discussed initial challenges when implementing this initiative, including sustainable financial resources, engagement of  business sector stakeholders, as well as official policies to ensure an effective work of the secretariat and councils in the long run. 

At the meeting, various development partners from Germany, Australia, ILO, Denmark and Norway shared an informative picture about the implementation of different models and initiatives being piloted to suggest initial recommendations. was All development partners emphasised that a sustainable financial structure is required to ensure sustainability. Besides, clear roles and division of work among board members is essential to facilitate stakeholder dialogues.

“Cooperation between TVET institutes and the business sector is not a new topic, but still remains a challenge. Valuable inputs today from different development partners will help us institutionalise most suitable aspects of the model to ensure its relevance to the context in Viet Nam”, Dr Truong Anh Dung, Deputy Director, DVET said during the closing remarks.

As an outcome of the meeting, development partners offered to jointly work with DVET on the establishment of a suitable legal environment for skills councils on different levels. From DVET side, the Department of Skills Development will discuss the need of the skills boards as well as its financial mechanisms and sustainability. This topic will be further elaborated in a workshop planned for January with the participation of more stakeholders. The TVET Development Partner Network is an initiative resulting from the Viet Nam Development Partnership Forum (VPDF) in 2013. Facilitating dialogues and exchange among MoLISA, multilateral and bilateral donors, development partners and implementing agencies as well as NGOs, this network supports the DVET in coordinating ODA activities of development partners in the TVET sector. Over the past 4 years, the TVET Sector Development Partner Network has been co-chaired by DVET/MoLISA and the German Embassy.  It serves to enhance synergies among development partners all aiming at improving the quality of TVET in Viet Nam. This is the 2^nd meeting of the year following the first one in June 2018.

The meeting was held within the field of activity “Policy Advice and System Reform” as part of the Vietnamese-German Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam. The Programme is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).