HÀ NỘI – The Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs (MoLISA) must re-examine the operation of vocational training centres to curb financial waste, Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ has said.

Noting that the training centres, especially the district-level ones, were left unused or abandoned, he made the request at the conference on renewing the operation mechanism of public units on Friday.

Reports from the ministry showed that there were nearly 1,990 vocational training institutes in the country. Of these, about 1,340 were State-owned, accounting for 67 per cent of the total centres. Most of the institutes were located in delta regions.

The number of teachers and managers in vocational training institutes were 91,555 people. Of them, about 71,770 were working for State-owned institutes, accounting for 78 per cent of the total strength.

Lương Minh Hiền, principal of the Lilama 2 International Technology College under the Ministry of Construction, said that some institutes should be managed by the ministry, instead of local authorities to ensure professional quality.

Specifically, the ministry must manage certain schools through the school board to avoid disturbing the governing authority of the principals.

Hiền said technical institutes should be self-reliant and adjust its enrolment based on market demand.

In reply to Hiền’s opinion, Deputy PM Huệ said it would be difficult for some schools, especially those in the mountainous areas and islands, to be self-reliant. "These schools still need the State’s support," he added.

In addition to these, Huệ said the ministry was proposing the formation of key vocational schools. He asked the ministry to make sure only schools that could be self-reliant were given licences to operate.

Đào Ngọc Dung, Minister of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs, said that there were five self-reliant institutes. Some vocational schools have started applying for local autonomy in terms of finance, organisational structure and management. However, they had not been approved by local authorities.

He cited Thái Bình Medical School as an example. The provincial People’s Committee granted only VNĐ 1.5 billion (US$66,045) each year, and the school had been self-reliant, but had not been approved officially by the committee.

At the conference, Deputy PM Huệ asked the ministry to evaluate the current organisation and operation of vocational training institutes, especially district-level ones, in terms of its scale, its ability to meet social needs and human resources training for industrialisation. Huệ affirmed that the State encouraged and created conditions for all vocational institutes to implement the mechanism of autonomy and self-responsibility, of which the most important was to be self-financed. – VNS