2018 – 25th anniversary of the British Council in Vietnam – the UK increases capacity building and professional development activities for universities in Vietnam right from the very first month of the year with three training programmes in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and Hue.
University of Glasgow started with capacity training programmes for primary and lower secondary schools in HCMC, Hue and Quang Tri from 13 January 2018 focussed on methodology reform and professional development. The programme focused on the analysis of challenges in methodology reform and professional development; the identification of knowledge, skills and values needed to successfully reform methodology, assessment, professional development and management and leadership; discussion about changing teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding their pedagogical skills, assessment and professional development; and sharing about the roles of leaders in reforms to improve the quality of teaching and learning, new ideas and practices of the renovation for school managers and leaders. A plan was also developed during the training for the third stage of the project – interventions at schools with professional support from University of Glasgow and their Vietnamese partners. The programme was organised and co-facilitated in partnership with University of Education HCMC, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University HCMC), University of Education Hue and Quang Tri College of Education.
In the week of 16–20 January 2018, Coventry University and School of Chemical Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology organised the Train the Trainer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The programme provided capacity building opportunities for university lecturers from technical universities around knowledge and skills in teaching these subject to technical students. The course is part of the project ‘Development of the Start-up ecosystem course and showcase design for Vietnam chemical engineering sector.’
From 21–24 January 2018, Queens Belfast University and the Institute of Construction Investment and Management, National University of Civil Engineering organised the BIM (Building Information Modelling) week with various activities such as Train the BIM trainers, Train the BIM implementers, and a workshop introducing BIM policies and BIM experiences from industry. The BIM week officially kicked off a one-year project ‘Developing BIM human resources in Vietnam through the development of BIM professional training courses and sustainable partnerships with businesses/industry’
These activities are funded by the British Council through the Higher Education Partnership (HEP) Initiative. The HEP initiative aims at enabling and expanding partnerships between UK and Vietnamese universities; sharing UK experiences and expertise; and building capacity for Vietnamese universities to meet Vietnam’s higher education renovation targets. Priorities of the HEP initiative include university governance, quality assurance, teaching and learning, research and graduate employability.