Over the past 70 years of construction and development, the Defence Industry College (DIC) has provided human resources for the continuous development of the Defence Industry Branch (DIB) and the entire Military. Promoting that glorious tradition, cadres, instructors, employees, cadets, and soldiers of the DIC have been dedicating themselves to building an advanced, strong College capable of meeting its task requirements in the new situation.

Founded on March 24^th, 1952 on the basis of upgrading the Defence Industry Vocational School, over the past 70 years, the DIC has trained tens of thousands of cadres, professional employees, and technical workers for the DIB in revolutionary periods. In the two resistance wars against French colonialists and American imperialists, the DIC always surmounted all difficulties to hold training courses for employees in charge of maintaining and repairing weapons and technical equipment, improve professional competence of weapons cadres from divisional and regimental-level repair stations, and train weapons assistants at battalion level for combat units across the Military, thereby making contributions to liberating the South and unifying the country. In the period of national construction and protection, in response to the development of modes of training, the DIC’s Party Committee and Board and all-level party committees and organisations have always remained a sense of unity and responsibility to lead offices and units to successfully fulfil all assigned missions and build a strong DIC capable of training and providing good-quality human resources for the development of defence industry and the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern Vietnam People’s Army.

Promoting its glorious tradition, in the upcoming time, the DIC will continue striving to become an advanced, modern education and training centre and a smart school capable of approaching the 4^th industrial revolution so as to satisfy new requirements set by defence production, contribute to building a compact, strong Vietnam People’s Army, and serve the country’s industrialisation and modernisation. To that end, the DIC will well implement several measures as follows.

First, standardise a contingent of instructors and educational managers. This is an important strategy of the DIC, aimed at maintaining and developing its training scale, comprehensively raising the quality of education and training, and realising the goals of organising university-level courses for several professions of defence industry in 2028 and becoming a Practice University in the foreseeable future.

To well implement this measure, the DIC Party Committee will focus on formulating plans with a specific road map for each year to solidly develop human resources to reinforce a pool of cadres and instructors with proper quantity, professional competence, research capability, creativity, and innovation. Emphasis will be placed on improving professional knowledge, teaching and practice skills, and scientific research capability of instructors from specialities that will robustly develop in the future, such as weapon manufacturing technology, propellant – explosive, guided weapon, missile, automation, and military shipbuilding. At the same time, due attention will be paid to selecting and sending qualified young cadres and instructors to universities for postgraduate courses, training instructors to take charge of various subjects when necessary, and organising visits to defence factories so that instructors will have more practical knowledge and hands-on experience.

Furthermore, the DIC’s Party Committee and Board will concentrate on well implementing the 13^th Politburo’s Conclusion 01-KL/TW, dated May 18^th, 2021 on the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 847-NQ/QUTW, dated December 28^th, 2021 on bringing into play the virtues of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” and resolutely fighting against individualism in the new situation, and Conclusion 21-KL/TW, dated October 25^th, 2021 by the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 4^th Plenum on further building and rectifying the Party and the political system, resolutely preventing, pushing back, and strictly handling the degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” amongst cadres and party members in order to build a contingent of cadres and instructors as moral examples for cadets to study and follow.

Employing modern equipment in teaching

Second, continue renewing and completing procedures, programmes, contents, and methods of training. Grounded on guidelines and policies set by the Party, the State, and the Ministry of National Defence on education and training as well as the building and development of defence industry, grasping units’ demands for production development and new investment projects under the direction of the General Department of Defence Industry, the DIC will direct its competent offices to proactively develop and renew plans, contents, and programmes for each educational level, educational degree, and speciality, and employ advanced teaching methods and the learner-centred approach in accordance with practical requirements and demands of production and business units. At the same time, it will continue supplementing and amending statutes and guiding documents, especially on education and training in order to build a regular, exemplary school. More investments will be made in training facilities and equipment. The DIC will standardise its speciality codes and get permission from higher echelons to open new speciality codes to keep pace with the development of defence industry. It will design and effectively apply pieces of software to training management and operation, while proactively reviewing, supplementing, and upgrading outcome standards of its specialities. Besides, great value will be attached to developing contents and programmes of political and ideological education to improve cadets’ political zeal, enable graduates to keep their mind on their work, and contribute to training high-quality human resources for defence industry and the Homeland protection in the new situation.    

Third, adhere to the motto of “substantive teaching, substantive learning, and substantive assessment.” To do so, the DIC will step up the work of propagation and education to raise its cadres, instructors, and cadets’ awareness of higher echelons’ viewpoints, while enhancing inspections of its education – training quality and regulations. Focuses of inspections will be placed on the development of legal normative documents, the release of outcome standards and conditions to guarantee the quality of education and training, and the implementation of programmes, plans, and regulations on training, examinations of various types, and cadet management. Great value will be attached to stringently carrying out self-inspections of the training quality under Circular 15/2017/TT-BLĐTBXH, dated June 8^th, 2017 and Circular 28/2017/TT-BLĐTBXH, dated December 15^th, 2017 by the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs stipulating “the quality standards of vocational education” and “the quality assurance system within vocational education facilities.”

Moreover, the DIC will develop a good-quality question bank to comprehensively evaluate learners’ ability in examinations of all types for all specialities. It will organise examinations and carry out assessments of cadets’ learning outcome in a serious, objective, honest fashion. It will flexibly apply measures and especially technical means to holding examinations so as to minimise negative impacts from the outside on its examination and assessment process. Besides, it will develop mechanisms for receiving feedback from learners and employers on the quality of graduates in order to opportunely adjust its training programmes/plans and settle its shortcomings. It will resolutely handle violations of education-related regulations and fight against “merit-driven” practices in all education and training activities.

Fourth, closely combine education and training with scientific research. To implement this measure, the DIC will create a favourable condition for its cadres, instructors, and cadets’ intensive researches to deal with the DIB’s pressing issues and raise the quality of education and training in line with the DIB’s manufacture process. Preferential treatment policies will be implemented for researches into the 4^th industrial revolution or researches with specific products, such as automated command system, smart weapon and technical equipment, cyber security and safety, big data, automated control system, robotics in Vietnam’s robot contests, advanced technology, mass production of equipment for military-defence task and the Homeland protection.

As for researches into education and training, the DIC will direct its offices and faculties to take feedback from units employing its trained human resources into consideration. Grounded on those units’ assessments, the DIC’s offices and faculties will be required to design and innovate curricula of specialities, particularly weapon manufacturing technology, electronics, cybernetics, automation, explosive chemistry, and information technology. At the same time, the DIC will foster cooperation in education, training, and scientific research, while learning from advanced training programmes of regional countries and the world. The DIC will also create a favourable working environment to encourage well-known scientists and experts to take part in teaching work within itself.

Bringing into play the DIB’s 77-year tradition and celebrating the DIC’s 70^th founding anniversary, grounded on the recorded achievements, cadres, instructors, employees, cadets, and soldiers of the DIC will continue heightening proactiveness and creativity, overcoming all difficulties, and determinedly successfully fulfilling the task of education and training in order to preserve the title of an advanced school, strive to become a typical training centre in the system of military schools, and make significance contributions to building a strong DIB.

Lt. Col. VU QUANG BACH, PhD

Commandant of the DIC