Friday, March 13, 2020, 08:22 (GMT+7)
Effectiveness in vocational training at the Vocational College No.4

Selected by the Government as one of the 45 key high-quality vocational institutions, Vocational College No.4 - the Ministry of Defense has constantly invested, innovated, created, and gradually improved the training quality and efficiency to become a reliable address for vocational training and job creation for trainees.

Vocational College No.4 under the Ministry of Defense is tasked with training technical personnel for production and service sectors at college, intermediate, and elementary vocational levels; fostering and improving professional skills for employees at the request of production, business, and service establishments and laborers; researching and applying techniques - technologies to improve training quality and efficiency; organizing production, business, and services according to the provisions of law; and other ad hoc duties assigned by the Military Region 4. Realizing that improving the training quality is a vital and decisive issue for its development and confirming the position and prestige of the College to the society, over the past time, improving the training quality has been identified as the core foundation and the central value in all activities of the College.

To promote the central role of the lecturers and managers at all levels in improving the training quality, the College has firstly focused on thoroughly grasping and effectively implementing Directive 05- CT/TW of the Politburo (the 12th tenure) on “Promoting the learning and following Ho Chi Minh thoughts, ethics, and style”, the 4th Central Resolution (the 12th Tenure) on “Strengthening the Party building and rectification and preventing and reversing the political, ethical, and lifestyle decline and the manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” internally” in association with the implementation of Directive No.855-CT/QUTW issued on August 12th, 1919 by the Central Military Commission Standing Committee on promoting the implementation of the Drive entitled “Promoting the tradition, dedicating talent, deserving “Uncle Ho's Soldiers” in the new period, regulations on modeling responsibilities of cadres and Party members, regulations on office culture, the Determination-to-Win Emulation movement, etc. to build a contingent of lecturers and managers with good political stuff, ethical qualities, and standard pedagogy for trainees to study and follow.

Along with that, the College has always paid attention to creating the best mechanism to encourage and support lecturers to improve their professional qualifications. It has also focused on creating favorable conditions for young lecturers to participate in higher education both at home and abroad and regularly sending lecturers to Australia and Japan to improve their skills. At the same time, it has applied a mechanism to attract talents. Currently, 100% of lecturers meet the standards under the Vocational Education Law. The College is one of the top military training institutions in building the titles of Meritorious Lecturer and Ministry-level Excellent Lecturer researching on multiples theses and initiatives with high practical value, etc. that is a basic factor, directly contributing to improving the training quality of the College.

Major Nguyen Ba Thanh inspecting a practical session of cadets

Along with the process of improving the professional qualifications of lecturers, the College has regularly renovated the training contents, programs, and methods, especially improving the activities of the faculties towards focusing on compiling training materials, innovating training methods, and promoting the positivity and creativeness of trainees. By 2019, the curriculum and training materials for 10 college majors, 18 intermediate majors, and 19 elementary majors have been detailed and applied in practical training to ensure modular training and vertical and horizontal connectivity, increasing the practical training time to 70% of total training time. The vocational training curriculum and syllabuses have been developed according to international and ASEAN standards and updated regularly to suit the production practices and more closely adhere to the human resource needs of enterprises and international integration in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Three training methods have been applied, including 50% training at the College plus 50% practicing at enterprises at home and abroad; 100% training at enterprises according to their needs or training according to the needs of trainees; and diversion training - high school learning cum vocational training. Among the training professions of the College, two professions access to the world technologies, namely Automotive technology and air-conditioning engineering and four professions approaching regional technologies, including Welding, Industrial Electricity, Construction Machinery, and Nursing, while Pharmacy has reached the national level. Modern training methods used by the majority of lecturers have enhanced trainees' self-study and group activities. The College’s training professions have been defined with output standards (standards of knowledge, specialized skills, and professional attitude) according to the criteria of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

One of the factors that helps improve the College's training quality is the realization of practicality in training, scientific research, and seminars at both faculty and College levels. Lecturers have made a fundamental shift when linking the contents of classroom lectures with future career practices after graduation. The College has a close association with production and business enterprises to provide trainees with practical learning, thereby contributing to better solving the relationships between the training institution and the employers. Through the suggestions of enterprises, the College continues to improve the training contents and methods so that graduates can meet the employers' requirements better. The motto of renewal of the management and improvement of the training quality at the College has been implemented synchronously in all majors and levels.

The College's training quality has been constantly improved by focusing on investing and modernizing training equipment. With the training program mostly including practical time, the College has used different sources of funding to invest in purchasing modern equipment and machinery of international standards for trainees to study and practice to master techniques, not being surprised after graduation. In 2018 and 2019 alone, the College invested over VND 15 billion under the National Target Program on Education and Training to modernize training equipment. Currently, the College is investing in management software to gradually change the management model from academic-year training to credit training. As far as its facility is concerned, the College is investing in building and upgrading on an area of ​​nearly 5 hectares under a VND 135 billion project which is about to be completed and put into use. Sticking to the needs of the labor market, the College has advocated continually supplementing equipment ... to ensure the trainees’ learning and researching to master modern machines and equipment. Along with that, the movement of researching initiatives and technical improvements has also been strongly promoted, which has contributed to enriching the training facilities of the College. In 2019, participating in the self-sufficient training equipment contest of Thanh Hoa province, the College gained one first prize and two second prizes and was sent to the national self-sufficient training equipment contest and won one second prize, one third prize, and on consolation prize.

The training effectiveness of the College is shown and associated with the benefit of the trainees. With the motto that the training quality is the first choice and job creation is the top priority, in recent years, the College’s training has always been associated with employability of trainees after graduation. For several years, the College has coordinated with enterprises for job promotion and provided several laborers for enterprises, such as: Vietnam Machinery Installation Corporation, Song Da Corporation, Lilama Joint Stock Company, etc. Currently, the College has also cooperated with universities and colleges in Korea, Japan, and Germany in both training and providing laborers to foreign markets which are assessed as highly potential with low funding but high income and good job opportunities. The College always ensures that 100% of the trainees in the training process have practical working experience at enterprises. Many trainees have been trained according to the orders of the enterprises and received internships when they are still at the College. The College has regularly directed the functional departments to coordinate with the faculties and center in management and training of candidates for working abroad and closely work with local enterprises to ensure trainees' internship and recruitment after graduation. Labor contracts have also been careful examined before signing to ensure legality and the highest interests for the trainees and employees. As a result, over 90% of the graduates of engineering majors have been recruited and attained career achievements, including successful entrepreneurs and managers.

With efforts in improving the effectiveness of vocational training, the Vocational College No.4 - Ministry of Defense has constantly grown in training scale with an average of over 12,000 trainees each year, making it one of the institutions with the highest amount of trainees in the Army's vocational education sector - the first choice of demobilized soldiers and students in the North Central region.

Major Nguyen Ba Thanh, MA.

Member of the Party Committee and Director of the College’s Thanh Hoa Branch

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