At the working session between Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son and the Military Technical Academy on the afternoon of December 13, Senior Lieutenant General Le Huy Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defense, proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training support the Ministry of National Defense in participating in training human resources to serve the country's industrialization and modernization, instead of only serving the military as it does now.

Since 2002, military schools have enrolled more than 93,000 civilian students at all levels. By 2017, according to Resolution 19 of the 12th Party Central Committee Conference, military schools will gradually reduce and completely stop enrolling civilian students by 2021. This is to implement the policy of innovation and reorganization of military units, overcoming the situation where there are schools that train civilian students many times more than military students, but the teaching staff is still from the military.

However, facing the difficulty of high-quality human resources, while military schools are qualified and have strengths in many sectors, the Ministry of National Defense is finalizing a project to continue training human resources to serve industrialization and modernization at a number of training facilities.

Mr. Vinh said that this is appropriate and necessary because training human resources to serve the country is the function of the Ministry of National Defense, stipulated in the Law on National Defense. This also helps improve the quality of the teaching staff, helping to comprehensively develop training facilities and key research centers of the Ministry of National Defense. In addition to acquiring professional knowledge, students are also trained in physical fitness, style, and military discipline.

The Deputy Minister of National Defense said that he proposed that 8 educational institutions expand enrollment. Of which, the Academy of Politics trains in humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and educational and training sciences. The Military Medical Academy, the Military Traditional Medicine Institute, and the 108 Institute of Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy Science Research train in health sectors.

The Military Technical Academy and the Military Science and Technology Institute train in the fields of science, engineering, and technology. The Military Science Academy trains in the fields of language, literature, and culture. The Military University of Culture and Arts trains in the fields of culture and arts.

According to Mr. Vinh, the Ministry of National Defense only makes proposals for areas with training strengths. He asked the Ministry of Education and Training to contribute opinions so that the Ministry of National Defense's project can be approved soon.

Major General Tran Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the Military Technical Academy, said that the academy is always ready to train civilians in technical majors related to basic technology, the fourth industrial revolution and priority areas of the state and the army. During the period 2002-2018, the academy trained about 9,500 students at all levels.

"Since stopping civil enrollment in 2019, the academy has suffered negative impacts, especially in its ability to exchange and integrate with universities and academies in the national education system and international schools," said Mr. Nam.

The Military Technical Academy currently has about 1,100 staff and lecturers, 45% of whom have doctoral degrees. In terms of facilities, the academy has 7 military bases serving training and scientific research in Hanoi, Vinh Yen, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai with many modernly equipped laboratories. Meanwhile, the academy only recruits about 600 students each year. After deducting those studying abroad, the number of students studying at the school is only about 350. In 15 training majors, there are majors that are assigned quotas only once every two years.

"Stopping civil system enrollment is a waste of human resources and ineffective in using the infrastructure system," Mr. Nam shared.

In addition, representatives of the Military Technical Academy wish to participate in training semiconductor chip design engineers due to sufficient resources and strengths in training and research in this field.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that with a strong team of staff and lecturers like the academy, if only a few students are trained, the training environment will lack vitality and motivation for development. Training human resources for the country's industrialization and modernization will help promote the academy's resources.

Director of Higher Education Department Nguyen Thu Thuy said that the Military Technical Academy has many resources and strengths in training in engineering and technology, which are currently prioritized for training, including semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence.

"We strongly support and will submit to the Minister to include the Academy in the list of core training units in the human resource training plan for the semiconductor chip field," said Ms. Thuy.

The "Project to continue training human resources to serve the country's industrialization and modernization at a number of training facilities in the Army" is expected to be submitted to the Government in the coming time, and can be implemented in the second quarter of 2024, with enrollment and training starting from the 2024-2025 school year.

Duong Tam