HCM CITY — Vocational training schools in HCM City should also teach soft skills to their students, experts said.

Many schools offered quality training, thus helping raise public awareness of the importance of vocational training, and many families put their children in them, Trần Minh Quân told a seminar on how to improve vocational training quality on Saturday.

However, there were shortcomings such as low training quality at some institutions and failure to meet the specific needs of various sectors and industries.

They were not very competent in teaching foreign languages and importantly did not focus on soft skills. 

The main goal of vocational education should be to improve the quality of human resources, particularly with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution in the country, he said.

Therefore, it should strengthen the linkage between training institutions and enterprises to meet market needs, create standards for vocational education and put in place a supervision and assessment mechanism, he added.

Nguyễn Thanh Lâm of the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said the city had 484 vocational training establishments, comprising 50 colleges and 66 schools which provided two-year courses, 65 training institutions and 303 others.

More than 2.55 million students graduated from them since 2011.

Improving the quality of human resources is vital for the city, and finding proper solutions for training to meet demand is an urgent need.

There is huge demand for quality human resources in its services and industrial sectors and for labour export.

Other participants said, however, the training available did not meet the needs of enterprises, the market or global integration.

Many vocational schools offered the same courses and their facilities did not keep pace with modern needs, they said.

Lâm added that the vocational training establishments should therefore focus on soft skills and foreign languages. — VNS