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Career Guidance Programme
Name: Popularizing a student-centred and gender-sensitive Career Guidance approach for secondary students in Vietnam
Location: National level + Provinces Quang Nam, Nghe An, Thai Nguyen and Quang Ngai
Implementation: 2011 - 2015
Budget: Total 2011-2013: €768,842 - Planned 2014-2015: €364,000
Donor: Belgian Federal Government (DGD)
Key themes: Secondary Education, Teacher Development, School Leadership, Strategic Support

Context

Guidance in educational and career orientation has long been neglected within Vietnamese education. This leads to less successful study and career choices of secondary education students. Students' choices do not take into account their individual competences. Part of the problem is low awareness of the importance of technical and vocational education. Also gender stereotypes persist towards career selection. 

Target

Communities, teachers and school leaders in secondary education improve the quality and relevance of career guidance.

Partners

Strategic partner

  • Ministry of Education and Training
  • Ministry of Planning and Investment

Operational partners

  • Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators (DTEA)
  • National Women’s Union (NWU)
  • Departments of Education and Training (DOET) of Nghe An and Quang Nam province
  • Provincial Women’s Union (PWU) of Nghe An, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Thai Nguyen province

Activities

This programme has four result areas:

  • At the provincial level, VVOB supports the capacities of Departments of Education and Training to organise student-centred and gender-sensitive career guidance in secondary education.
  • VVOB assists the National Women's Union in its efforts to support provincial women's unions on career guidance.
  • The role of the parents is crucial in educational orientation. Therefore VVOB supports provincial departments of the Women’s Union. The aim is to strengthen the skills of parents in the career guidance of their children.
  • In addition, VVOB works with national partners to increase the range of the approach on career guidance. This is done through support to the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators of the Ministry of Education and Training in providing professional training on career guidance to teachers and school leaders.

Some results achieved

Some examples from the period 2011-2013:

  • The development of a vision on career guidance by the provinces of Nghe An and Quang Nam; and the validation of this vision through a national workshop.
  • Training of trainers (80) in career guidance.
  • Training of 2,700 teachers and members of the school management (579 lower secondary and 140 upper secondary schools in two provinces). Most secondary education teachers never have been trained before in this subject. These trainees reach 280,000 students in lower secondary and 185,000 in upper secondary schools.
  • Review and update of teaching resources on career guidance. Included topics: career orientation, management of career guidance, individual counselling skills.
  • Training of 70 trainers of the Women’s Union in raising awareness among parents and students about the importance of career guidance and of technical and vocational education (2012-2013). They trained 900 members of the Women’s Union. Nearly 100 leaders of the local clubs of the Women’s Union in five provinces reached about 3,000 parents. As of 2013, the National Women’s Union used career guidance as a key theme in the improvement of parenting. Career guidance is still part of their national programme for five million mothers.

Some examples from the period 2014-2015:

  • Career guidance has been integrated into the provincial education implementation plan beyond 2015 in Nghe An and Quang Nam. 
  • Career Guidance material is spread nation-wide through multiple channels and on different levels: national trainings, the NWU programme, the MOET-Viettel website which is accessible to more than 300,000 teachers and 2,700,000 students, as well as local schools.
  • More than 700 teachers directly received training on Career guidance. More than 4000 trainee staff (from DOETs, BOETs, schools) participated in career guidance events.
  • About 2700 parents – members of the Women's Union Education and Life clubs have improved their awareness and career guidance skills.
  • At national level, 60 core trainers of the national Women's Union were trained. They trained in turn 420 parenting club facilitators, benefitting parents in more than 200 clubs in 14 provinces.