SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT EDUCATION AND TRAINING
CONCERNING THE LABOUR MARKET IN VIETNAM
Dr. Nguyen Ba Can
Deputy General Director
Department of Facilitates
Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam
OUTLINE
I.
Overview Vietnam education and training system
1. Briefly Vietnam profile
2. Attainment of education and training sector
3. Policy and strategy by 2020
II.
Issues of education and training concerning the
labour market now
1. From education and training side
2. From labour market side
3. Main messages and directions for reform
BRIEFLY VIETNAM PROFILE
 Land Area: 331,689 km2
GDP per capita (PPP): $3,300
(2011 est.)
GDP by sector (2011est.):
agriculture: 22%
industry: 40.3%
services: 37.7%
 Population below poverty
line: 14.5% (2010 est.)
 Labour force: 46.48 million
(2011 est.)
 Labour force by occupation
(2011) :
agriculture: 48%
industry: 22.4%
services: 29.6%
VIETNAM POPULATION
 Total (2011 est.):
90,5 mils
 Age structure:
0-14 years: 25.2% (male 11,945,354/female
10,868,610);
15-64 years: 69.3% (male 31,301,879/female
31,419,306);
65 years and over: 5.5% (male 1,921,652/female
3,092,589);
 Population growth rate (2011 est.): 1.077%
VIETNAM LABOUR FORCE
(age of male 15-60; female 15-55)
 Total (2010) : 56.7 mils (65.2% population);
 Age structure:
 Age 15 -29:
47.5%;
 Male:
49.52%
Female:
50.48%
Urban:
26.90%
Rural:
70.40%
ATTAINMENT OF EDUCATION
 Literacy of population aged 15 and over increased from
87.3% in 1989 to 93.5% in 2009 and about 94.0% in
2010 ;
ATTAINMENT OF EDUCATION
 Vietnam has achieved the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGS) on education for all:
 Completed universalisation of PE in 2000 and
LSE in 2010;
 Average schooling year of population aged 15
and older in 2010 around 9.6 years;
Social equity in access to education, especially
for ethnic minorities, children of poor families,
girls and disadvantages, improved a lot
ATTAINMENT OF EDUCATION
 Gross enrollment of TVET and tertiary education has
experienced strong growth since 2005
2500000
2000000
TVET
1500000
Professional Secondary
1000000
Higher education
500000
0
Year 2004
Year 2011
VIETNAM EDUCATION AND TRAINING
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
 Implementing universalisation of primary and lower
secondary education whole country;
 Ensuring learning need and long-life learning of all
young people and adults; building a learning society;
 Achieving gender equality;
 Ensuring all vulnerable and disadvantaged children and
children in difficult circumstances and ethnic minorities
have access to and complete, free and compulsory basic
education of quality
VIETNAM EDUCATION AND TRAINING
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
 Ensuring all young people and adults are met through
equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills
programmes
 Expand the network of TVET to meet the training needs
of employees and towards universal vocational training
to our youth
 Promote cooperation between HE establishments and
research organizations and enterprises.;
VIETNAM EDUCATION AND TRAINING
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
 Completing universal access to early childhood
education for children 5 years of age in 2015;
 Percentage of correct age in general education by 2020:
primary level:
99% ;
Lower secondary level:
95%;
Upper secondary and equivalent: 80%;
 70% disability children in school by 2020.
VIETNAM EDUCATION AND TRAINING
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY BY 2020
 New enrollment capacity of schools TVET, professional
and universities about 30% total students completed
LSE and equivalent levels;
 Number of labourer trained TVET and tertiary about
70% of total labour force;
 Number student of TVET and tertiary about 350 – 400
per 10.000 populations;
 Comprehensive and fundamental renewing towards
standardisation, modernisation, socialisation and
international integration to strengthen the quality and
efficiency of the system.
ISSUES OF EDUCATION AND LABOUR MARKET NOW
1. Education and training side
 Poor outcomes:
 System is not synchronous, lack of integration
among levels;
 Low basic skills acquisition;
 Unequal access to education for poor, disabled
and ethnic minority; children;
 School’s infrastructure and teaching aids are lack
and out of date;
 Focus on narrow disciplinary;

Enrollment of TVET and tertiary education still too
low
Structure of labour force of Vietnam by qualification in 2010
1.6%
4.7%
2.6%
4.4% 0.0%
86.7%
Untrained
Short course TVET certificate
Middle course TVETcertificate
Junior college degree
University degree
Unknown
 Lack of training programs to equip students with the
necessary qualities required of employers:
Lack of suitability between the needs of
businesses with program design
 Many teaching staff is not exposed to the work
environment ;
 Very few companies cooperate closely with TVET
and institutions of tertiary education
Policy factors such as over-reliance on private
tuition and under investment…
2. Labour market side
 Lack of labour supply-demand information
 No transparency of recruitment
 High unemployment rate;
 Incomplete legal system;
 Employees working mainly in agriculture and informal
structure sectors with low productivity and high risk
 Large separation between urban and rural, dynamic
economic region and underdevelopment ;
 Weak labour market governance ;
 Wage determinant and salary inequality
LINKAGE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
WITH LABOUR MARKET
 Reforming levels of general education
Revising curriculum, renewing teaching methods
and assessment of the quality;
Strengthening institutions;
Reforming organisation;
Development of teachers, managers and
administrators
Increasing investment and funding
finance;
Expanding equity and ensure equality;
Enlarging equity and equality;
Expanding improving the efficiency of
international cooperation;
LINKAGE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
WITH LABOUR MARKET
 Reform of higher education
Improve quality of higher education and expand
its size to attain a target of 350-400
students/10,000 people by 2020;
Strengthen institution and renew administration
and management ;
Divide training programs into two categories of
research and career application;
LINKAGE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
WITH LABOUR MARKET
Shift to a system of credit-based courses;
Finalise the higher education quality
assurance and accreditation system;
Reach agreements on certification and
degrees with other countries in the region
and elsewhere;
 Establish international-class universities.
LINKAGE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
WITH LABOUR MARKET

Reforming TVET
Creating closely relationships and linkages
between TVET and labour market on base
of participation of enterprises;
Encouraging cooperate of enterprises with
TVET institutions through offering of
courses of self-training, re-training and
training in job;
 Mobilising financial contribution of
businesses and industries to support TVET
LINKAGE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
WITH LABOUR MARKET
Enterprise directly participate into development of
teaching staff and curricular based on technical
standards and skills; identification of job
categories, design of training courses and
assessment of students, etc...
Providing information on supply-demand of skill
workers; notify requirement on qualification,
quantity, ability and capacity of recruited
employee to TVET institutions;
The government establishes the labour market
information network to link training institutions
with labour users in provinces and cities as well as
the whole country;
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
FOR ATTENTION