In early March 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) took over the state management function of vocational education (VET). This is expected to open up innovations for VET institutions across the country. However, many secondary and college schools continue to face significant challenges in enrollment this year.
Reducing the quota still cannot recruit enough
MSc. Nguyen Minh Quang, Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City College of Electricity, said many factors have made the already difficult enrollment process even more difficult.
Ho Chi Minh City College of Electricity is one of the key institutions training high-quality human resources in the electricity sector in the South. However, when the government implemented streamlining and operating two-level local governments, the workforce in this sector was also arranged more compactly, leading to many challenges in student output.
According to Master Quang, although vocational training institutions are under the state management of the Ministry of Education and Training, there has not been much innovation. Because high school students still tend to "fail university to go to college", vocational schools are only "plan B".
"The school's enrollment target in previous years was about 800 students, if we could recruit about 550 students, it would be considered favorable. However, this year will be more difficult, I only hope to reach about 50% of the target" - Master Quang expressed.
At Ly Tu Trong College (HCMC), about 450 applications have been received for the intermediate program, but this number is still quite limited compared to the target of 3,000 students. Meanwhile, at the same time last year, the school was able to complete more than 50% of the enrollment target for the school year.
Dr. Chau Van Bao, Vice Principal of Ly Tu Trong College, said that although the school has increased enrollment in many forms, the number of applications for both intermediate and college levels is still very limited, with enrollment only stable for "hot" majors.
Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Thi Phuong Anh, Principal of Quang Nam College (Da Nang City), informed that in the 2024-2025 school year, the school will enroll 1,715 students, reaching 98% of the target assigned by the Provincial People's Committee. The total number of students in the school will increase to 3,700. However, in the 2025-2026 school year, enrollment will face many difficulties and the target will be "tighter".
Associate Professor Phuong Anh explained that previously, the rate of students being transferred to vocational education in Quang Nam province (old) was about 30%. However, with the increase in the rate of students entering public grade 10 to 85%, plus the number of students dropping out of school, the number of students who can enter vocational schools is only about 10%-15%.
Vocational students at Ly Tu Trong College (HCMC)
"Take short-term to support long-term"
Master Tran Phuong, Principal of Viet Giao Secondary School (HCMC), said that despite the difficulty in recruiting students, the school still focuses on key fields of study such as tourism , hotels, restaurants, kitchens and entertainment services. This helps the school position its brand more clearly in a competitive context, while also helping students and parents easily remember and choose.
MSc. Phuong admitted that recruiting students from high school graduates is becoming increasingly difficult. To make up for the quota, the school must diversify its recruiting sources.
"The school has many different sources of enrollment, such as combined training with vocational education and continuing education centers, short-term training courses, and articulation programs... These programs attract older students who want to study to improve their skills but still ensure working time," said Ms. Phuong.
According to MSc. Phuong, "taking short-term to support long-term" and focusing on short-term training courses to maintain operations and compensate for the decline of the regular system is becoming a survival strategy for many vocational schools.
To compensate for difficulties in recruiting long-term regular students, Ho Chi Minh City College of Electricity is actively promoting short-term training and retraining programs. These are courses of less than 3 months, aiming to improve professional skills for electricity workers who are already working.
MSc. Hoang Phan Ba Phuong, Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic College, said that vocational training plays a particularly important role in the development of a country's human resources. However, vocational education also needs to be updated to keep up with the trends of modern education.
According to Master Ba Phuong, the majors that are attracting students include: chip and semiconductor industry, carbon credits, robotics, virtual worlds and tactile technology, automation, renewable energy, digital transformation, data science, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, application and software development, healthcare technology and new business models...
The occupations and jobs that tend to decline the most are accountants, auditors, secretaries, cashiers, warehouse keepers, administrators, data entry, sales, banking, interpreters, security guards, mechanics, factory workers, assembly line workers, etc.
Need key investment
MSc. Ba Phuong emphasized that in order to "survive" the current trend and attract students, vocational schools need to be planned on a large scale and provide multi-disciplinary and multi-profession training. Some schools need to receive key, high-quality investments to meet the learning needs of workers, meet the human resource needs and the continuous changes of the labor market.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/truong-nghe-diu-hiu-kho-tuyen-noi-50-chi-tieu-196250703212820211.htm
Comment (0)