A workshop on cost-benefit analysis for developing the National Vocational Training Report taking place during June 3-4, 2014 in Hanoi aimed at revising and further improving the concept of the cost-benefit analysis, which is the focal topic of the coming Report. The workshop received broad participation of management and staff of the National Institute for Vocational Training (NIVT), experts from the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and GIZ, representatives of General Directorate of Vocational Training (GDVT), the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) and TVET institutes as well as German CIM experts and development advisors.

In the opening remarks, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cao Van Sam, Deputy Director-General of GDVT, highlighted the support of the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and GIZ, with which NIVT successfully developed and published two national Vocational Training Reports for 2011 and 2012 in the last three years. He pointed out that every year the national Vocational Training Report focuses on a different topic in order to present a holistic view of the situation of the TVET system in Vietnam. The next report includes an analysis of costs and benefits for companies participating in TVET. This difficult, but important analysis helps determines how future policies and strategies can link TVET with enterprises’ activities. Therefore, the workshop built on the valuable experiences of various stakeholders regarding the topic of costs and benefits for enterprises.

The national Vocational Training Reports which summarizes a wide range of statistics on TVET in Vietnam, have received a great deal of attention not only from the Vietnamese government but also from other stakeholders, national and internationally as it was shared at important events like the Regional TVET Conferences in Hanoi (2012) and in Jakarta (2014). Assoc. Prof. Tien, as he reviewed the report development experiences, added that the analysis in these reports has become more precise, the skills of the researchers have improved, and the positive feedback from stakeholders increased. Also areas that need improvement are timing, language capability of researchers, and depth of research on certain topics, such as the involvement of the business community.

Mr. Steffen Horn, CIM expert on monitoring and evaluation at NIVT, gave an overview of the draft concept for the cost-benefit analysis by NIVT. The objective is to analyse the types and amounts of benefits which enterprises receive in relation to their costs when they get involved in TVET, in order to raise the awareness among enterprises and intensify their involvement in the TVET system. As a first step, a case study on selected enterprises which are involved in training, either by offering internship programs or by running TVET institutes will be carried out.

On the second workshop day, Ms. Anika Jansen, BIBB expert, presented approach and experiences of BIBB in surveys and implementation on cost-benefit analysis and detailed analysis of two occupations, which showed that the net costs for firms can vary substantially depending on the occupation. Ms. Jansen emphasized that firms, which engage in more costly training activities, do not expect immediate benefits but see TVET as an investment in the future. She then gave an overview of the conceptual basis and the structure of a questionnaire, using the example of the BIBB cost-benefit questionnaire. She also pointed out which elements need to be considered when adapting this example to the Vietnamese situation.

The questionnaire of NIVT, developed by Dr. Steffen Horn, was then revised and discussed. Suggestions for improvement of representative of NIVT and other stakeholders were included. Dr. Steffen Horn summarized the next steps which include adjusting the concept and questionnaire, arranging interviews with enterprises, and conducting a pretest.

In his closing remarks, Assoc. Prof. Tien highlighted that the results of the cost-benefit analysis should be included in the next national Vocational Training Report and thanked for the support of GIZ and BIBB and its experts for their expertise, and especially for the contributions of all participants which made this workshop a success.