HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh Cityaims to increase the proportion of secondary school graduates enrolled atvocational training schools to 30 percent by 2020, but the schools arestruggling to maintain enrollments.

Nearly 18,000 of more than 81,000 studentsgraduating from the ninth grade this year will have to enroll in the 10th gradeat private schools, continuing education centres or vocational schools,according to the city’s Department of Education and Training.

This figure is based on the department’senrollment quota for the 10th grade at public schools for the 2017-2018academic year.

However, few students wanted to study atvocational schools, said Nguyen Dang Ly, Rector of International College of HCMCity, at a meeting held last week with the city’s Department of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs and managers of vocational training schools.

"Managers of high school and secondaryschools prefer to have a high rate of graduates studying at universities,"Ly said.

"A high number of students who go on tostudy at the university level helps build the schools’ brand name and attractstudents," he added.

Nguyen Le Dinh Hai, Rector of Nguyen Truong ToVocational College, said that district-level labour officials had not createdfavourable conditions for enrollment in vocational schools.

Nguyen Thi Hang, Rector of the HCM CityVocational College of Technology, said that “enrollment has become aheadache" for the college.

She said the Department of Labour, Invalids andSocial Affairs should have more meetings with schools to seek solutions andshould reform the vocational training system.

Colleges should also focus on their “strongest”majors and work together to improve training, she added.

Le Minh Tan, head of the department, said thePeople’s Committee would be asked to require secondary and high schools as wellas local labour officials to allow vocational schools to carry out enrollmentcounselling.

He asked representatives of vocational schoolsto improve their facilities and teaching ability as a large number of highlyskilled employees, especially for the startup ecosystem, would be needed in thecity.

By 2020, the city is expected to have 500,000enterprises, many of which will need skilled staff, according to Tan.

Currently, the city has 484 public and privatevocational training schools. This year, these educational establishments needto enroll a total of 403,000 students.

However, of the figure, 381,000 students willattend training courses lasting three months or less. “Such training does notmeet enterprises’demands,” he added.

Tan said they should offer training courses oftwo to three years, especially in the city’s 21 main industries, includingelectricity-electronics, pharmaceutical chemistry, refined foods and nineservice industries.

“HCM City is a special urban place that provideshighly qualified human resources for the country. Vocational training schoolsplay a contributing role, but they need to improve training quality,” Tan said.-VNA