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| Flight training at the Regiment 910 |
The Air Force Officer College whose forerunner was the Aviation Training School was founded on August 20th 1959. The College’s inception marked a significant milestone in the Vietnamese Air Force’s construction and development process. In the resistance war against America, the College’s cadres, instructors, and cadets always grasped the task, heightened self-reliance, organized training and engaged in the fight to defend the North in support of the South revolution. Since the country was reunified, the College has taken over several airports in the South and quickly developed into a centre responsible for training the Military’s pilots and aviation technical staff. In the country’s renewal period, the College has gradually developed and completed the training program, raised the quality of education and training, and contributed to making the Vietnam People’s Air Force revolutionary, regular, seasoned, and modern, thereby deserving to be a centre for training military pilots and air-force technical staff and a cradle cherishing Vietnamese youth’s dream of mastering the Homeland’s beloved airspace. With the outstanding achievements in the past 60 years, the College, 1 collective and 26 staff members have been given the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces by the State.
The College’s teaching staff have made deciding contributions to those significant achievements and shown great maturity. Overcoming numerous difficulties from its very beginning, up to now, the College’s contingent of instructors have been politically strong and basically qualified, 100% of them hold bachelor’s degree, 40% of them hold postgraduate degree, many of them are given the title of Elite Teacher, and all of them are capable of providing training courses from primary to secondary and college levels for pilots and aviation technical staff both at home and abroad.
In the new situation, the College’s education and training task has new developments with the higher requirements. To fulfil this task, the College’s Party Committee and Board have determined to continue building a standardized pool of instructors via various measures and considered it as a key step towards the improved quality of education and training.
First of all, the College has concentrated on consolidating the structure of its teaching staff properly together with a rate of reserve instructors in order to create a favourable condition for its instructors to enter higher education and hold other positions as the fieldwork in other units. As an education and combat readiness unit, the College has always been confronted with a dearth of staff (meeting only 80%-85% of its demand). Thus, the College’s Party Committee and Board have focused their leadership and direction on developing specific plans, adjusting and arranging its contingent of cadres and instructors, and staffing its faculties with those who have held bachelor’s degree or postgraduate degree. In the process, all-level party committees and commands have promoted their responsibility while coordination between offices and units has been maintained closely. Based on the regulations on its organizational structure and its faculties’ demands, the College has directed its Political Office to cooperate with the faculties in recruiting instructors. Between 2016 and 2019, the College dispatched 55 cadres and instructors to work at its faculties. At the same time, it recommended the Air Defence - Air Force Service’s Party Committee and Command to advise the Ministry of National Defence on quickly issuing a document on its organizational structure and its cadres’ titles and rank promotion as the basis for building its contingent of cadres and instructors and raising the quality of this force.
In addition, the College has proactively formulated the plan on recruiting the cadres who had held managerial and commanding positions in grass-roots level units, the officers who had graduated from other colleges or undergone regiment and division-level training courses, and those who had graduated from colleges outside the Military. The Colleges has selected good military pilots graduating from the College and other ones from grass-roots level units to be flight instructors for its flight regiments. As for its faculties, the College has recruited mainly good graduates from other colleges both inside and outside the Military, engineers and bachelors from other units, and cadres who have had good professional competence and teaching method. As a result, it has basically tackled a shortage of instructors in several faculties.
Second, attaching importance to creating the supply of instructors to standardize their knowledge and focusing on fundamental, regular, long-term training. Yearly, the College’s Party Committee and Board direct all-level party committees and commands to closely review groups of cadres, conditions, and criteria, while identifying forms of training and carefully considering the targets in line with the demand for the quantity of cadres. The training plans are developed elaborately and strictly implemented. In addition to proactively creating the human resources for long-term regiment and division-level training, postgraduate training, and foreign training, the College has attached significance to aligning the training work with the use of cadres and instructors to ensure the continuous, solid inheritance. After the planning had been approved by the Service, the College developed the action program in a close, feasible manner in accordance with reality. In the process, the College has proactively cooperated with other colleges both inside and outside the Military in opening training courses for cadres’ title completion and actively requested the targets for its cadres and instructors’ further education, mainly for their regiment and division-level training and postgraduate education. Between 2016 and 2019, the College dispatched 52 instructors to attend regiment and division-level and postgraduate training courses. By 2020, 60% of the College’s instructors will hold postgraduate degree, over 10% of its instructors will hold doctorate, and 30% of its flight instructors will hold postgraduate degree.
Third, improving instructors’ knowledge comprehensively, closely combining the training work at the College with in-service training courses and self-study. This is a key step which enables a cadre to become an instructor and an important measure to improve the quality of the contingent of instructors. Grounded on the College’s plan to develop a contingent of instructors, faculties have formulated the plans to organize the training courses on professional knowledge and teaching method as well as encouraged them to self-study. Great value has been attached to improving instructors’ foreign language and technology information to meet the criteria set for college instructors; considering this as one of the compulsory criteria for assessing, appointing cadres and instructors and ensuring the policies for them. The College’s Party Committee issued a special resolution on improving cadres, professional servicemen, defence employees’ foreign language and information technology knowledge in the period of 2016-2020 and beyond; the College developed a plan to diversify forms of training and actively dispatched cadres and instructors to attend training courses. Its faculties have created a favourable condition for instructors to attend foreign language and information technology courses and self-study; many instructors have been proactive in self-studying foreign languages and information technology to meet the task requirements. Between 2016 and 2019, the College dispatched 5 instructors to attend English courses abroad and cooperated with the Australian Defence Attaché Office in organizing 2 English courses for 42 instructors.
On a yearly basis, the College organizes refresher courses in a bid to update its instructors on new knowledge of teaching, fieldwork, and scientific research. Its faculties have frequently held training course and teaching contests. Grasping its contingent of cadres and instructors and its task requirements, the College has proactively dispatched its cadres and instructors to hold leading and commanding positions in air-force divisions and regiments. Job rotation between instructors and managerial cadres has been frequently carried out so that instructors, particularly the young ones could gain more hands-on knowledge. As a result, the quality of the contingent of instructors has been raised to better meet the task requirements.
Fourth, making more investments in facilities and teaching equipment, ensuring sufficient policies for instructors, and encouraging them to devote their talent to the College’s training and education task. Over the past years, investments have been made in the College’s facilities and teaching equipment, especially in its factories, airports, training grounds, labs, simulation training rooms, and specialized rooms. The system of libraries has been provided with sufficient textbooks and documents. With its particularities of air force training, the College couldn’t organize flight training or raise the quality of training unless it has sufficient aircraft, airports, equipment, and fuel. Thus, the College has attached great value to preserving and sustainably, economically, effectively using its weapons and equipment as the basis for surmounting difficulties and fulfilling its task. At the same time, it has applied technology to training and education and assisted its instructors in mastering modern teaching equipment and simulation software. Despite a lot of difficulties, the College has paid due regard to improving its cadres and instructors’ material and mental life in an effort to make them keep their mind on their work. In addition to higher echelons’ regulations, the College has adopted preferential treatment policies on accommodations for its contingent of instructors, established the Education Promotion Fund, and assisted its instructors in study and research.
With the sound guidelines, resolve, and effective measures, the College’s contingent of instructors has unceasingly developed and made great contributions to enhancing the quality of education and training and building a “regular, exemplary, standardized, modern” Air Force Officer College to deserve its 60-year tradition of construction and development.
Sr. Col. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Commissar of the College