In July 2020, the Hue Industrial College (HueIC) the Construction Technical College No1 (CTC1) and their cooperative partner enterprises participated in online workshops to empower the new founded advisory boards in the wastewater sector. In alignment with the German dual apprenticeship system, the role of the advisory boards is to link colleges, employers, associations, trade unions and the Vietnamese-German programme “Reform of TVET in Vietnam” to continuously improve the quality of vocational training for Sewage Engineering Technicians.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the workshops took place online but still guaranteed a high level of interaction thanks to the use of Zoom, a conference room solution and MURAL, a digital workspace for visual collaboration. The workshops were structured in four work steps.

During the introductory phase, participants presented themselves and expressed their expectations about the workshops. In the next step, they formulated visons and goals regarding the work of the advisory board. The results of this brain storming were clustered according to each goal’s importance and feasibility. On this basis, participants defined tangible working results and products which were prioritised based on achievability. This led to a list of next steps with timelines and responsibilities. The discussions in the two workshops showed that both the TVET and the business sector see a great need of collaboration and concrete actions to materialise it. The primary goals for the colleges are to smoothly implement the cooperative training model and to integrate the in­dustrial experience of the companies by for example updating the curricula. The companies on the other hand expect better qualified graduates and further training for their low skilled staff. Consequently, one concrete next step is to develop a template for a training needs analysis in the companies and to record the further training need of the companies’ staff.  The participants showed themselves content with the results of the workshop resuming as the operation of an advisory board has become clearer. “The workshops were successful as they help the industry and the colleges to better understand each other”, said Ms Nguyen The Hoa, Hai Phong Drainage One Member Limited Company. In August, a workshop with the advisory board of the College of Technology II (HVCT) will conclude this series of online-workshops.

The activity is held within the Vietnamese-German Programme, Reform of TVET in Viet Nam. It is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) together with the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).