On behalf of the Executive Committee, Dr. Phan Sỹ Nghĩa, President of the Viet Nam Association for Vocational Education, Training and Social Work (VAVET&SOW), presented the report reviewing the Association's results in 2024. For the Office and the units under the Association, the following was achieved:

Organisational work

  • Organised the Executive Committee conference reviewing activities in 2023 and rolling out the 2024 work plan, both in person and online.
  • Organised the Executive Committee's Lunar New Year (Giáp Thìn) gathering with current and former leaders of the Association.
  • Held an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee to consolidate the Association's leadership (electing Mr Phan Sỹ Nghĩa, Vice President and Secretary General, as President of the Association to replace Mr Dương Đức Lân, who stepped down at his own request, and electing Mr Mạc Văn Tiến as Vice President and Secretary General of the Association; adding Mr Hoàng Văn Tuấn, Party Committee Secretary and Rector of Thanh Hóa Industrial College, and Mr Nguyễn Thanh Bình, Party Committee Secretary and Rector of the College of Construction Mechanisation, to the Executive Committee, and Mr Đặng Văn Tâng, President of the Hai Phong Association for Vocational Education and Employment, to the Standing Committee).
  • Established the Institute for Development of Vocational Education and Social Security and prepared the required dossier for submission to the Ministry of Science and Technology to obtain a science and technology activity registration certificate for the Institute. The Institute now has full legal status (it has been granted the science and technology activity registration certificate and has its own bank account and seal).
  • Admitted 10 new institutional and individual members in 2024.
  • Developed and issued the "Regulations on the Code of Ethics and Conduct of the Association".
  • Prepared the required dossier for submission to the Ministry of Information and Communications to renew the press licence of the Career and Life (Nghề nghiệp và Cuộc sống) magazine, in both print and electronic editions, as the licence had expired.
  • The Association for Beauty Vocational Training and Development, a unit of the Association, successfully organised a gala to review its activities in 2024, roll out its 2025 work plan and honour outstanding groups and individuals in all areas of work.

On 10 January 2025, the Viet Nam Association for Vocational Education, Training and Social Work held a conference, both in person and online, to review 2024 and roll out the 2025 work plan, with the participation of members from across the country.

Contributing to the development and improvement of policies

At the request of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the Association studied and commented on the following draft documents:

  • Comments on the amendment of the Law on Employment regarding the chapter on vocational skills development.
  • Comments on the draft Decision of the Prime Minister amending and supplementing Decision 46/2015/QĐ-TTg of 28 September 2015 on policies supporting elementary-level training and training of less than three months, and on the draft submission to the Prime Minister.
  • Comments on the draft MOLISA Circular on the vocational education and training database.
  • Contributions to the Vocational Education Sub-committee of the National Council for Education and Human Resource Development on autonomy and accountability in vocational education; the Law on Vocational Education and the issues it raises for human resource development in the new period; and vocational training to meet the skills needs of the semiconductor industry.
  • Comments on the regional guidelines for ASEAN Member States on strengthening the role of social workers and the extended social service workforce in the justice and health sectors; the ASEAN Guidelines on the provision of social work services for women and children subjected to violence; and the action plan for implementing the ASEAN Guidelines.
  • Comments on the draft regional guidelines for ASEAN Member States on the role of the social work workforce in disaster risk reduction and climate change resilience.
  • Comments on the draft Decree dossier adjusting the standard social assistance level stipulated in Decree No. 20/2021/NĐ-CP.

Professional activities

  • Worked with the Finnish business partnership programme (Finnpartnership) to hold a second online workshop, "Viet Nam – Finland Cooperation in Vocational Training", in January 2024, helping Vietnamese colleges and Finnish partners explore needs and opportunities for cooperation in vocational education and training (TVET), particularly in priority areas such as green jobs, school–enterprise linkages in training, teacher training and migrant workers.
  • Worked with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) to hold an in-person workshop, "The Accounting Profession in the Context of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) – Challenges and Solutions", in December 2024 in Ho Chi Minh City. It was attended by 130 delegates from more than 30 colleges in the southern region and more than 100 students of Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics.
  • The Association's leaders joined the drafting team preparing amendments to the Law on Employment relating to vocational skills development and national vocational skills assessment, and contributed actively throughout the drafting process.
  • Leaders of the Association were appointed to the Organising Committee and the Jury of the 2024 National Teaching Competition for TVET Teachers.
  • Authorised the Association's Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City to hold five seminars on "Digital Transformation – the Digital Competence Framework and the Conditions for Building a Digital School" and three practical classes on using Open Educational Resources (OER) at a number of vocational education institutions in the south, to support schools in building digital schools.
  • Made preliminary preparations of a capability statement to bid for the "Skills Development and Vocational Training" component of Phase 3 (2026–2035) of the Aus4Skills programme funded by the Australian Government.
  • The Association for Beauty Vocational Training and Development held a forum on "Business Trends in the Beauty Care Industry: Operating within Scope, Effectively and Sustainably, and Applying Digital Transformation in the Beauty Care Business". In partnership with Hanoi Industrial Vocational College, it opened several courses in TVET teaching methodology at elementary and college levels for its members, to improve the teaching skills of trainers at beauty training institutions.
  • The Institute for Social Work Research and Training organised dozens of classes in facial diagnosis (diện chẩn) and yin–yang qigong, and provided weekly online counselling on self-care health techniques to hundreds of people, many of them from disadvantaged groups, policy beneficiaries and people with meritorious services to the revolution.

International cooperation

  • Worked with the leadership of the GIZ Programme "Reform of TVET in Viet Nam" on priority areas of cooperation in 2024, including jointly organising a workshop on TVET policy and legislation to assess the implementation of the Law on Vocational Education since it took effect (July 2015), as a basis for proposing appropriate amendments to the competent authorities.
  • Sent the Association's leaders, at the invitation of the Chinese side, to attend the China–Viet Nam TVET Exchange Conference and the launch of the China–Viet Nam TVET Forum in Yantai, Shandong, China.
  • Sent a written request to MOLISA for permission to work with Chinese partners to organise a Viet Nam – China TVET Cooperation Forum, scheduled for March 2025.
  • Held discussions with UN Women on jointly organising a number of activities in 2025, including skills upgrading courses for women workers.

Scientific research

  • Prepared a dossier and successfully bid for a 2024 ministerial-level research project tendered by MOLISA, "Research and Proposal of a Digital College Model in Vietnamese TVET" (however, as MOLISA did not receive science and technology research funding from the Ministry of Finance in 2024, the project was carried over to 2025).
  • At the same time, proposed three topics to the MOLISA Science Council for inclusion in the list of science and technology tasks for 2025: solutions for developing school–industry relations in the context of the digital economy; solutions for promoting the twin transition (green and digital) in vocational education institutions; and solutions for enhancing the role of professional associations in monitoring and evaluating TVET policies and programmes.
  • The Institute for Development of Vocational Education and Social Security drew up a list of provincial-level research topics and schemes to be implemented in 2025 in several provinces and cities (Bắc Giang, Phú Thọ, Khánh Hòa, Tây Ninh, etc.).

Communications

The Career and Life magazine was maintained in both print and electronic editions. The print magazine publishes one issue a month, and the online magazine published nearly 3,000 news items and articles, many of them covering the Association's activities and TVET, employment, occupational safety and social security. Communications work complied with the law. However, the monthly print issues were still published late (each month's issue only appears at the end of the following month), so information was not always timely; in addition, professional content lacked depth and was of limited reference value for management and research.

Other activities

  • Reported to the Ministry of Home Affairs and MOLISA on the Association's activities in 2023 and its orientations and tasks for 2024.
  • Reported to the Ministry of Information and Communications on the exercise of the powers and duties of a press governing body under Article 15 of the Press Law.
  • Reported to the Central Commission for External Relations on the results of cooperation with international organisations in 2024.
  • Representatives of the Association's leadership attended conferences and workshops organised by ministries and sectors, and attended or sent flowers to congratulate member vocational education institutions on occasions such as opening ceremonies, founding anniversaries and the receipt of prestigious State awards.
  • The Association wrote to its members calling on them to respond actively to the appeal of the Central Committee of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front to support people affected by Typhoon No. 3 (Super Typhoon Yagi). The Association itself and its units, such as the Career and Life magazine and the Association for Beauty Vocational Training and Development, also responded actively, presenting relief gifts to people in several localities (Yên Bái, Lào Cai, etc.) severely affected by the typhoon.

Members

  • Member vocational education institutions made great efforts in student enrolment, for example by stepping up communications in many forms; many schools opened new fields and occupations to meet social demand and attract more learners; and they focused on improving training quality through investment in facilities, renewal of training programmes, closer cooperation with enterprises at every stage of the training process, and professional development for teachers and managers. As a result, many schools met or exceeded their enrolment targets, and the proportion of students finding jobs in their field within six months of graduation was high, exceeding 80% at many schools.
  • The Hai Phong Association for Vocational Education and Employment held its second Congress for the 2024–2029 term to evaluate the results of the past term, set out orientations and tasks for the next term and elect its leadership for 2024–2029.

"Over the past year, the Association faced many difficulties in working with its traditional partners because of numerous changes in the State management mechanism; some traditional partners had to concentrate on inspections and audits by the competent authorities and were therefore unable to carry out many professional activities, including activities planned jointly with the Association (such as workshops on amending the Law on Vocational Education and communications on TVET). The Association remained united internally, and a number of colleagues were very active in implementing activities and in building and developing the Association. The Association's activities closely followed the Party's guidelines and the State's policies and laws on developing vocational education and human resources, and complied with the Charter and the Working Regulations of the Executive Committee. The Association's leadership was consolidated in a timely manner, ensuring continuous and smooth management of its activities. Attention was paid to consolidating the functions, tasks and legal status of the Association's units to enhance their operational capacity. The Association's activities focused on members and the grassroots; the Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City and the Association for Beauty Vocational Training and Development were active and proactive in carrying out their functions and tasks," commented Dr. Phan Sỹ Nghĩa, President of the Viet Nam Association for Vocational Education, Training and Social Work.

In 2025, the Association plans to focus on the following activities:

  • Prepare for and hold the Association's 4th Congress of Delegates (2026–2030 term) to evaluate the results of the 2020–2025 term, set the Association's orientations and tasks for 2026–2030 and elect its new leadership.
  • Establish the Viet Nam – China Vocational Education Cooperation Centre.
  • Consolidate the Editorial Board of the Career and Life magazine (carrying out the procedures to appoint the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editors-in-Chief as required).
  • Consolidate the organisational structure and staffing of the Institute for Development of Vocational Education and Social Security, including establishing a representative office of the Institute at the Association's office in Ho Chi Minh City.
  • Continue to recruit new members among vocational education institutions, beauty training institutions and social work organisations, and encourage localities with many vocational education institutions to set up their own vocational education associations.
  • Within the framework of the cooperation programmes with the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training (DVET) and the GIZ Programme "Reform of TVET in Viet Nam", jointly organise one or two workshops on TVET legislation.
  • Continue to provide advice and critical review in the development of new policies and the review and amendment of existing policies and laws related to TVET and social work.
  • Work with member vocational education institutions to organise workshops, seminars and training courses on professional matters, management and governance of vocational education institutions, the use of Open Educational Resources (OER), digital transformation, and the renewal of training programmes for the semiconductor chip industry, among others, in order to build capacity and support the Association's member institutions in implementing the TVET development guidelines and orientations of the Party and the State, so as to supply a trained workforce for socio-economic development in the new period – the nation's era of rising.
  • Finalise the capability statement to bid for the "Skills Development and Vocational Training" component of Phase 3 (2026–2035) of the Aus4Skills programme funded by the Australian Government.
  • Compile and publish a number of monographs on digital TVET and digital human resource development.
  • Consider developing criteria for assessing and ranking smart schools and green schools, together with the Association's own assessment and ranking procedure (independent of assessments and rankings by State agencies).
  • The Association for Beauty Vocational Training and Development plans to hold a vocational skills competition covering the skill modules of beauty care and hairstyling, and to continue working with Hanoi Industrial Vocational College to enrol members wishing to attend courses in TVET teaching methodology at elementary and college levels.
  • In addition to maintaining its traditional topics such as employment and social security, the magazine will broaden its content to follow the Party's and the State's new guidelines on economic development, such as digital transformation, green transformation, the application of AI and the circular economy, as well as the merger and streamlining of the administrative apparatus of ministries, sectors and localities.
  • Focus communications on: training human resources for the semiconductor industry; human resources for renewable energy development; and the circular and sharing economies.
  • Increase the number of articles with higher scientific content, with a view to converting the print edition of the Career and Life magazine into a scientific journal (so that authors of articles published in it can earn points towards academic titles and degrees).
  • Implement the 2024 ministerial-level research project "Research and Proposal of a Digital College Model in TVET".
  • Prepare dossiers to bid for ministerial- and provincial-level research projects, schemes and consultancy work on human resource development planning, among others, to be implemented in 2025–2026.
  • Work with Chinese partners to organise the "Viet Nam – China TVET Cooperation Forum" as a bridge for vocational education institutions in the two countries to establish training cooperation, and organise delegations for experience-sharing and teacher and student exchanges between Vietnamese and Chinese vocational education institutions.
  • Work with the GIZ Programme "Reform of TVET in Viet Nam", the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Finnpartnership to organise a number of professional conferences and workshops within the framework of the cooperation programmes.