Students at Á Âu Vocational School. Photo courtesy of the school

HCM CITY — Only around 83,320 ninth grade students in HCM City will sit the 10th grade entrance examinations, and the remaining 16,245 have not registered for the exam, the city Department of Education and Training has said.

Most of the latter are likely to apply for vocational and technical colleges and secondary vocational schools, Lê Hoài Nam, deputy director of the department, said.

Enrolment in technical and vocational education has steadily increased in recent years, according to the official.

Vocational schools have invested heavily in infrastructure and made teaching reforms  to meet the demand of students.

Fee incentives  they offer also make them more appealing to students.

The city has 57 vocational and technical colleges, 64 secondary vocational schools and 272 vocational training centres.

Vocational and technical colleges are expected to enrol 45,000 students this year.

At the intermediate level, secondary vocational schools are expected to enrol another 36,000 students, while vocational training centres are expected to enrol 295,800 others.

New occupations

Many vocational schools have started new courses to meet the demands of the labour market.

The Bách Khoa Secondary Vocational School in HCM City has this year begun a beauty care course and expects 200 enrolments.

The Bách Khoa Sài Gòn College is this year offering 150 seats in English, Chinese and Japan language courses, part of 17 courses for 540 students.

Hoàng Văn Phúc, rector of the college, told Người Lao Động (Labourer) newspaper that with the economic fallout of COVID-19 worsening, enrolment is likely to drop this year.

Vocational and technical colleges and secondary vocational schools began taking in students in March.  —VNS