Although a large number of university graduates fail to get suitable jobs, students and their families still hope to study at university at any cost, leaving vocational schools struggling to attract enough students to operate.

A bartender skills display at the city’s job fair in July

Data published by the Da Nang Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs show that, as of mid-November, vocational training schools across the city had enrolled 25,942 students in total for the 2020-2021 academic year, fulfilling only 47.60% of their target. Of this figure, 6,930 applied for junior colleges, 1,962 for intermediate schools, and the remaining over 17,000 for under-3-month vocational training courses.

The low number of students leads to a shortage of funding for operational costs and teachers’ salaries, putting these vocational schools in a financial crisis.

Vice Rector of the Viet Nam-Australia Vocational Junior College Le Thi Khanh Chi explained that the reason for the serious lack of students in vocational schools is that many students and their parents prefer to choose universities than vocational schools.

Another reason for the problem is that vocational schools have yet to focus on their enrollment methods in order to increase student numbers.

Trainees of the Da Nang branch of the A-Au (Asia-Europe) Vocational Guidance JSC learning how to make birthday cakes

Mr Ho Viet Ha, Rector of the Da Nang Vocational Training Junior College, underlined a must-do for vocational schools in the city to change their enrollment methods in order to attract more students to their schools.

Rector Ha emphasised that great efforts should be made to innovate their teaching methods and update training curricula that meet regional and international standards in order to provide their graduates who adapt themselves to the competitive labour environment in the face of the global integration.

Heed should be paid to partnering with businesses to organise international-standard training programmes for their students in a bid to help their undergraduates acquire professional skills and real experience through their professional training programmes to meet the requirements of recruiters after their graduation.

By THANH VAN - Translated by M.D