The Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City has just reported the results of the first 7 months of the year and the orientation of work for the last 5 months of 2024 in the field of vocational education.

At the reporting session, representatives of colleges, intermediate schools, vocational education centers - continuing education centers in Ho Chi Minh City said that enrollment faced many problems. Some schools recruited more than 70% of their quota, but there were also schools with no students coming to study.

Master Tran Van Tu, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics, said that one of the main reasons for the difficulty in enrollment is that many parents and students still place great importance on the need to study at university to be successful. The number of university enrollment targets is too large, and universities are open with many enrollment methods, making vocational education unattractive to students.

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan - human resource forecasting expert, Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City Vocational Education Association - said that universities do a good job of communicating when posting many recruitment articles on social networking platforms. On the contrary, vocational education institutions are completely sparse, do not invest much, the posts are quite simple so they do not attract many people's attention.

To improve the quality of enrollment, Mr. Tuan said that schools need to pay more attention to communication.

"In addition to each school's own information channel, vocational education and continuing education centers, secondary schools and colleges should have a common information channel on vocational education. Information posted quickly, officially and professionally is easier to reach more people" - Mr. Tuan suggested.

Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh, Head of the Vocational Education Department, Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City, said that enrollment in training programs of vocational education institutions in the first 7 months of 2024 reached 42.58% compared to the annual plan, exceeding 12% compared to the same period in 2023. Of which, elementary level occupations and training under 3 months account for a large proportion; college and intermediate levels account for a low proportion.