Vietnamese Qualifications Framework’s implementation faces challenges

February 24, 2017 - 18:26

Certain challenges have come in the way of the implementation of the Vietnamese Qualifications Framework, it was revealed at a policy dialogue held this morning in Hà Nội.

Deputy Minister Bùi Văn Ga delivers his speech at the event Friday morning in Hà Nội. — Photo courtesy by British Council
Viet Nam News

HÀ NỘI — Certain challenges have come in the way of the implementation of the Vietnamese Qualifications Framework, it was revealed at a policy dialogue held Friday morning in Hà Nội.

Phạm Xuân Thu, deputy head of the National Institute for Vocational Training, said it was the first time a qualifications framework at the national level had been issued, thus, concepts released under the framework were very new, for example the concept of learning outcomes.

Thus, it was taking time for the institute and relevant agencies to grasp and together build a detailed roadmap to implement the framework according to the requirements of the government, he said.

Additionally, the lack of experts who could assist in applying the framework in a practical situation was also one of the challenges, he added.

The Vietnamese Qualifications Framework, issued by the government last October, has eight levels -- Level 1 – Elementary 1, Level 2 – Elementary 2, Level 3 – Elementary 3 and Level 4 – Intermediate, as well as Level 5 – College, Level 6 – Bachelor, Level 7 – Master and Level 8 – PhD.

It was designed to be compatible with the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework, laying a foundation for higher education institutions to prepare appropriate training programmes and help Vietnamese labourers get more opportunities to seek jobs in the ASEAN block.

Speaking at the event, Cherry Gough, director of the British Council in Việt Nam, the organisation that cooperates with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs to build and support the implementation of the national qualification framework, said, to put the national qualifications framework into practice, the participation of organisations, international experts and enterprises was a prerequisite.

She said the four pillars to implement the national qualifications framework are strengthening the participation of employers, getting the right balance between vocational training and higher education, referring to the ASEAN qualification framework, and managing and ensuring education quality.

The council was preparing to build the learning outcomes for the four sectors of accounting, construction and materials, textiles and information technology.

Stirling Wood, a British expert, suggested that in Britain, the implementation of its qualifications framework was undertaken in three stages.

In the first stage, after the national qualifications framework was adopted as policy, managerial agencies and experts would establish criteria to rewards organisations that understood the concept.

In the second stage, the licensing organisations cooperated with schools, training institutes, professional organizations and businesses to develop the learning outcomes for each sector. The outcome would be submitted to the accreditation agencies for approval and subsequently recognised.

In the third stage, the accreditation agencies would continuously inspect the quality to ensure the licensing organisations worked with utmost effectiveness. During inspection, the accreditation agencies would have to adjust the learning outcomes to ensure they were suitable with the actual situation. The learning outcomes after being adjusted and updated would be returned to accreditation agencies for approval before they were put into practice.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bùi Văn Ga said the British Council had held a range of policy dialogue and training courses related to qualifications framework over the past three years.

Ga said he appreciated those courses, adding that these activities offered Việt Nam the best experiences of foreign countries related to the qualifications framework so that Việt Nam could save both time and money during its long road towards education reform. — VNS

E-paper