Students who graduated from secondary school attend an electricity class at Hà Nội Industrial Vocational College. — VNA/VNS Photo Anh Tuấn

HÀ NỘI — Few employers are engaged in the links among Government, job trainers, employers and trainees’ families due to the lack of a binding mechanism, vice director of Hà Nội’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyễn Thanh Nhàn said.

Speaking at a recent meeting on the enrolment of vocational schools and colleges for this school year, Nhàn said once employers’ involvement in job training was enhanced, it would improve employment opportunities for trainees.

This year, 21 public job training institutes in Hà Nội hope to receive 18,735 students including nearly 8,000 students for college programmes which last two or three years and more than 10,700 students for vocational training programmes which last two years or less.

To date, more than 2,500 students have been admitted to job training college programmes and 6,500 students admitted to vocational school programmes.

It is expected that by the end of next month, the city’s job training institutes will meet or even exceed their enrolment targets.

Nhàn said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the schools faced difficulties in reaching students in conventional ways like face-to-face consultations or through school fairs. Instead, the schools used online approaches.

With improved budgets for education, many families now preferred to have their children attend colleges or universities while many colleges/universities had lowered their requirements to attract students, posing more difficulties for vocational schools, Nhàn said.

Nguyễn Thành Long, principal of the Hà Nội Transportation Works Vocational School, said the school had enrolled more than 4,300 students for elementary level, twice the figure expected.

“Most of the students are from rural or suburban areas, who want to work right after graduation,” Long said, adding that it was difficult to enrol students from urban areas or the city’s inner districts as they and their families preferred colleges or universities.

Phạm Tiến Dũng, principal of the Hà Nội College of Electronic and Electro - Refrigeratory Technics, said thanks to improved communication and visible effective of vocational training, students and their families had better understanding of vocational institutes.

However, many others were still sceptical or unaware of job training institutes, resulting in modest enrolment at many vocational schools.

“It is necessary for schools to improve career orientation and job consultation during enrolment,” Dũng said.

“With proper understanding about training programmes and jobs to work in future, students will be more interested in vocational training schools,” he said, adding that about 70 per cent of the students admitted to his school learned about the school through acquaintances who were alumni.

Dũng said such students could go to work during their first year at the school.

“To increase enrolment, besides improved job orientation and consultation, the school also expanded co-operation with employers, training students to fit with employers’ requirements,”Dũng said.

Nguyễn Công Truyền, principal of the Việt Nam–Korean Vocational College, said the city should have further communication to change public prejudice on vocational schools, with more activities to honour students of vocational schools or skilled workers.

The role of employers in training and creating jobs should be promoted, he said, adding that almost all students graduating from departments like refrigerator technology, electrical and electronics, engineering or automobile technology easily got employed upon graduation.

Ngô Văn Quý, vice chairman of the Hà Nội People’s Committee, called on stakeholders to increase communication about vocational training.

He asked departments of labour and education and training to work together in career orientation and consultation for students in secondary and high schools.

The departments were also asked to teach students about vocational schools as well as labour markets, particularly jobs the market has a high demand for.

The city’s Department of Planning and Investment was asked to review projects relating to vocational training so that proper resources would be given to the sector. — VNS