Strengthen the quality of TVET qualifications in Vietnam through building connections with UK and EU quality standards
10 September 2021 – the British Council and the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training (DVET) are delighted to launch the Qualifications Benchmarking (QB) project, which delivers an evidence-based review to benchmark vocational education qualifications against England Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
The QB offers a comparative perspective on the core components of qualifications such as entry requirements, curriculum, assessment, learning outcomes against the UK and EU education system which selected as the reference point.
The event welcomed the participation of Dr Pham Vu Quoc Binh, Deputy Director General, DVET; Ms Donna McGowan, Director Viet Nam, British Council; Mr Fabrizio Trifiro from Ecctis; Mr Nguyen Quang Viet, Director, VETA, DVET; Mr Jesus Lavina, Deputy Head of Cooperation, EU delegation in Viet Nam and 70 representatives from colleges in Viet Nam which have involved in the projects, and the British Council.
Speaking at the event, Dr Pham Vu Quoc Binh, Deputy Director General, DVET, emphasised the need to build a qualifications framework for the institutions in Viet Nam, which help them to approach the qualifications framework in ASEAN and G20 countries. Therefore, he highly evaluated the initiative of the QB project in setting the foundation for future collaboration in certificates recognition between Viet Nam and the UK, and later with Viet Nam and EU. He believes this initiative will create opportunities for Vietnamese students to work in both local and international markets while opening doors for them to pursue higher education in the UK.
The Qualifications Benchmarking project is supported by EU VET TOOLBOX and the British Council. The project supports the DVET and five colleges in Vietnam, including Viet Nam - Korea Vocational Technology College of Bac Giang (VKTECH); Ha Noi College for Electro-Mechanics (HCEM), Dalat Technical and Vocational College (DALATVTC); Hue Tourism College (HUETC); and Ba Ria Vung Tau Vocational College.
Ms Donna McGowan believed that the QB project designed building on the success of UK-VN collaboration in previous projects, and upon DVET’s request in September 2020 and with strong commitment from Vietnamese colleges and DVET, will help Viet Nam vocational education benefit in the long term. Sharing values of the UK TVET sector and UK as provider of globally trusted qualifications and internationalised quality teaching, learning and assessment in TVET will inspire Viet Nam to improve quality of vocational education systems in Viet Nam, identifying an effective roadmap to gaining international recognition of qualifications.
To deliver the QB project, the British Council has invited Ecctis, an UK and internationally trusted education body for qualifications and skill standards, to work with DVET and vocational colleges in Viet Nam to undertake an independent and objective evaluation of selected vocational qualifications which are in priorities in Viet Nam. As part of the QB, Ecctis will provide Viet Nam with a report detailing key findings of the evaluation and analysis of gaps in comparable academic standing in relation to UK/EU qualifications frameworks.
Apart from helping Viet Nam to determine the appropriate level of VET qualifications in reference to the UK education system, the QB project will develop a standalone self-assessment tool that provides a set of a quality framework for the colleges in Viet Nam to help the colleges to raise quality standards of qualifications and gaining international recognition and reputation.
Drawing on the benchmarking exercise, QB will produce a recommendation report to DVET suggesting areas for improvement to enable VET system in Viet Nam in moving to international recognition with focus on credit transfer, meeting industry needs through engaging industry in teaching and learning, learning outcomes development, assessment of qualifications and employability for learners.
Mr Vu Hoai Phuong – Principal of HUETC and Dr Dong Van Ngoc – Principal of HCEM represented for five participating colleges to share commitment for the future success of the project.
Closing the event, Mr Nguyen Quang Viet, Director, VETA, DVET shared that the five selected colleges with five training programmes could be considered as pioneers in the qualification benchmarking and international recognition. At the system level, this is also an opportunity to review and initially establish the link between The VQF level 5 in comparable to UK/EU qualifications frameworks. Viet Nam also wishes to match the quality assurance system of Vietnam's TVET with the European Quality Assurance Framework on Vocational Education (EQAVET). He also affirmed the commitment from the DVET, VETA in implementing the project.
The project launch event has opened many opportunities for future discussion and collaborations between the UK and Viet Nam partners. The college representatives attending the event are looking forward to receiving the shared results from the project to help their colleges conduct reviews and assessments in an international approach./.