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FPT Polytechnic College’s director is pushing for Vietnam to increase and improve work-study programmes.
Quach Ngoc Xuan, director of FPT Polytechnic College says that Vietnam should increase the number of work-study programmes.
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| Students at FPT Polytechnic College |
Xuan made his comments during an interview in which he was asked about the training model he recently implemented at the college.
He said that colleges and universities in Vietnam have seen steady increases in students, but many graduates are still unqualified because of the schools’ lack of focus on practice-based training.
Often companies must retrain new employees who’ve graduated from college and should, in theory, have enough knowledge to do their jobs, he said.
“I’ve met a lot of graduates who’ve finished their studies and then failed to find a job. Many of them tell me that the major they’ve chosen has not given them the proper qualifications for their desired profession.”
“Others have decided to continue their studies because they are not confident in their ability to work. This can be a great waste of time, energy and talent, as society is in need of a qualified workforce,” he said.
Xuan noted that most schools are aware of their deficiencies, but a shortage in money keeps them from making the necessary improvements.
According to him, the most cost-effective way of improving the quality of graduates is to implement work-study programmes.
Schools may find it difficult to mobilise new capital from private sources to create such programmes without help. This leaves the schools no choice but to continue to follow the programmes set up by the Ministry of Education and Training.
He especially emphasised the need for work-study programmes in technical fields in order to meet the market demand in certain market sectors. For this reason, he explains, individual schools must take the lead in creating their own training programs, and teachers must have practical, real-world experience.
Xuan is adamant that both students and administrators must have a change in thinking. If students consider each school day as they would a working day at a company, their attentiveness and discipline would naturally rise. In turn, teachers should think of their students more as colleagues, to whom they pass on their career know-how.
