Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning

Appropriation of foreign approaches for sustainable development and

transformational changes in Vietnamese vocational education
Tien Thi Hanh Ho, Ly Thi Tran,
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Tien Thi Hanh Ho, Ly Thi Tran, (2018) "Appropriation of foreign approaches for sustainable
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development and transformational changes in Vietnamese vocational education", Higher

Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 8 Issue: 4, pp.527-543, https://doi.org/10.1108/
HESWBL-04-2018-0053
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Foreign
Appropriation of foreign approaches for
approaches for sustainable sustainable
development
development and transformational
changes in Vietnamese 527

vocational education Received 30 April 2018

Revised 31 May 2018
Accepted 31 May 2018
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Tien Thi Hanh Ho

Department of English, Hue Industrial College, Hue, Vietnam, and
Ly Thi Tran
School of Education, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract
Purpose – Vietnam’s 11th National Party Congress prioritised integration, modernisation and
industrialisation as the new key orientations for Vietnam. It outlined Vietnam’s integration with the world,
not only economically, but also in terms of the social, cultural, educational, scientific and technological areas
that can support social and economic development and sustainability. Vocational education has been
recognised as pivotal to the nation’s sustainable workforce development and transformational changes. The
purpose of this paper is to analyse how foreign approaches and practices have been filtered and appropriated
to bring about sustainable development and transformational changes for Vietnamese vocational education.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is derived from a study that involves documentary analysis,
observation and semi-structured interviews with vocational learners and staff across three different
vocational education and training (VET) sites in Vietnam. The overall study includes three vocational
education providers and 22 participants altogether, but this paper involves observation and semi-structured
interviews with eight participants, including one leader, two teachers and five students. It focusses on
a Germany-funded vocational college in the northern central area of Vietnam that came under the
management of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the local province where the
college located.
Findings – The findings of the study show a critical need to develop a new “Vietnamese VET pedagogy”
that filters international influences and flexibly and creatively combines them with the existing local
pedagogy. To meet the local and global demands and bring transnational changes for Vietnamese vocational
education, new VET pedagogies need to align with both Vietnamese historical and political situations,
especially the emergent demands of the open market socialist economy and to capitalise on international
influences – Confucian, French, Soviet and Western. Such a balance will ensure Vietnam makes use of both
international forces and local strengths for sustainable development and transformational changes rather
than passive dependence on foreign practices.
Research limitations/implications – The research provides valuable insights into the appropriation of
foreign practices and principles in Vietnamese vocational education. However, it focusses only on three
vocational education sites in central Vietnam. Further studies with larger scale of participants and across
a variety of vocational education settings including public and private institutions, community centres and
family workshops will offer broader findings related to this important topic.
Practical implications – The study suggests practical implications for institutions to deal with the
challenges associated with the adaptation of international forces into the vocational education context in
Vietnam. It outlines the transformational changes in pedagogical practices related to the increased
requirement to move from the traditional didactic teaching to more self-directed learning, to meet the
requirements of a modern vocational education system.
Originality/value – This study provides unique insights into the practices and challenges of filtering foreign
VET practices and principles to bring about transformational changes in Vietnamese vocational education.
Higher Education, Skills and
Work-Based Learning
Vol. 8 No. 4, 2018
The authors would like to deeply thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments pp. 527-543
and suggestions, which helped the authors improve this paper, and the research participants for © Emerald Publishing Limited
2042-3896
sharing their interesting insights. DOI 10.1108/HESWBL-04-2018-0053
 HESWBL It, therefore, responds to the paucity of literature in this area. In addition, it examines internationalisation
in Vietnamese VET, an under-researched area in the field of internationalisation of education as most of the
8,4 literature in this field concentrates on the higher education sector.
Keywords Vietnam, Internationalization, Sustainable development, Vocational education and training,
Pedagogical practices, Transformational changes
Paper type Research paper

528
Introduction
Vietnam is the world’s 14th and Association of South East Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) third
largest nation with a population of 92.7m people. Since the launch of Political and Economic
Reforms (Đổi Mới) in 1986, Vietnam has transformed from one of the poorest countries in the
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world, with a per capita income of around US$100, to a nation with a lower-middle income
status and a per capita income of more than US$2,000 at the end of 2014 (World Bank, 2015).
Despite this significant economic growth in recent decades, Vietnam has a modest Human
Development Indicators index increase: only around 0.683 in 2015 (from 0.435 in 1990)
(UNDP, 2011), ranking 128 out of 187 countries (UNDP, 2015). To improve and sustain its
economic development, Vietnam’s 11th National Party Congress prioritised integration,
modernisation and industrialisation as the new key orientations (Chinh phu Viet Nam, 2011).
It outlined Vietnam’s integration with the world, not only economically, but also in the
social, cultural, educational, scientific and technological areas that can support the nation’s
social and economic development and sustainability.
Vietnam’s goals for the modernisation and industrialisation of the country are closely
related to the development of a sustainable skilled labour force and the improvement of the
teaching and learning quality of vocational education institutions (Austrade, 2013; Nghiem,
2007; Thủ tướng chính phủ, 2001, 2012a, b). To meet this challenge, key policy initiatives have
been released including: the National Green Growth Strategy; the National Human Resource
Development Strategy 2011–2020; the National Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011–
2020; and the National Vietnamese Education Development Strategy 2011–2020. In particular,
the Vocational Training Development Strategy of Vietnam by 2020, which was approved by
Vietnam’s Minister for Education on 29 May 2012, aims to train a high-quality skilled labour
force across all forms of education, including informal and non-formal. As vocational education
is regarded as a critical element in the reform process, this strategy focusses on the quality of
this sector. In reforming the sector, the government has been active in seeking collaboration
with foreign powers and institutions and international agencies.
This paper is derived from a study that involves documentary analysis, observation and
semi-structured interviews with vocational learners and staff across three different vocational
education and training (VET) sites in Vietnam. It aims to understand how staff develops
a VET pedagogy for sustainable development and transformational changes in Vietnamese
VET by navigating foreign influences and localising them in line with the Vietnamese context.
The findings of the study show a critical need to develop a new “Vietnamese VET pedagogy”
that filters international influences, and flexibly and creatively combines them with the
existing local pedagogy. To meet the local needs and global demands and bring transnational
changes and sustainable development in Vietnamese vocational education, new pedagogies
need to align not only with Vietnamese historical and political situations, but also importantly
with the dual demands of the open market economy and the socialist orientation as well.
It is also crucial for the sustainable development of the VET system to flexibly capitalise on
layers of foreign influences – Confucian, French, Soviet and “Western”. Such a blended
approach of flexibly and creatively combining foreign and Vietnamese practices and
principles will ensure Vietnam makes use of both international forces and local strengths for
sustainable development and transformational changes. The findings show that passive
dependence on foreign practices is not sustainable in the Vietnamese context with its own
 distinctive political, cultural and historical characteristics. This paper is a response to the Foreign
dearth of literature in internationalisation for sustainable education by examining how foreign approaches for
approaches and practices have been appropriated to bring about transformational changes sustainable
and sustainable development in Vietnamese vocational education.
The paper begins with a discussion of the context that necessitates the reform of development
vocational education in Vietnam and internationalisation of vocational education. This is
followed by a brief overview of the study on which this paper is based. After an analysis of 529
the data on how international practices and principles have been appreciated in VET
teaching and learning in Vietnam, the paper concludes with a summary of the main shifts in
pedagogical practices arising from the hybridity between foreign and traditional practices
and values in VET pedagogies, and of their key practical implications.
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The context for vocational education reform in Vietnam

The Vietnamese vocational education sector currently consists of 123 vocational education
colleges, 306 vocational upper secondary schools and over 1,100 vocational training centres.
Over 100 higher education institutions also provide vocational education courses
(Do and Do, 2014). Therefore, VET in Vietnam also aligns with the higher education
sector. In 2010, there were over 1.7m students undertaking vocational education
programmes, a substantial increase from 792,000 in 2000. The complexity of governance
in the Vietnamese education system, which results in overlapping duties, can be seen in the
VET sector. Vocational education institutions are largely managed by the Ministry of
Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA). However, the responsibility for technical and
vocational education remains with Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), under the
management of the Technical and Vocational Education Department of MOET. At the local
level, Provincial Departments of Education and Training administer Professional Offices,
which are assigned to the administration and management of technical and vocational
education by MOET.
A range of policies, resolutions and strategies has been introduced over the past decades
for the purposes of reforming Vietnamese education, including VET: Resolution No. 44/NQ-CP
(9 June 2014), Resolution No. 29/NQ-CP (4 November 2013), the Fundamental and
Comprehensive Reform of Higher Education in Vietnam 2006–2020 (Quoc hoi Viet Nam, 2013)
and a strategy for human resource development (Thủ tướng chính phủ, 2011). Particular
attention is being paid to providing lifelong learning and other skills (e.g. soft skills and team
working skills) for every citizen (Quoc hoi Viet Nam, 2005; Thủ tướng chính phủ, 2012a;
UNESCO, 2015).
The ASEAN Economic Community came into effect at the end of 2015. With local labour
forces able to freely find work across all Asian countries, competition can be aggressive for
the Vietnamese labour force, as Mac (2015) observes. There is, thus, a critical need for
Vietnam’s labour force to be equipped with skills for integration and operation. This is
highlighted in the 2014 release of the Vocational Education Law (formerly the 2006
Vocational Training Law), which took effect on 1 July 2015. This new law addresses the
emerging demand for vocational learners to be equipped with integrated skills, such as the
abilities to work independently, be creative, apply modern technology and adapt to a new
working environment in the context of the ASEAN Economic Community. The new skill
requirements (i.e. job-specific skills, problem-solving skills, life skills or soft skills and
language skills) are challenging VET in Vietnam and require shifts in approaches to
teaching and learning. Furthermore, the mismatch between the existing curriculum and the
demands of employers must be addressed if there is to be a transformation of Vietnam into a
modernised and industrialised nation (see also Tran et al., 2014).
Given these ambitious goals for Vietnam’s modernisation and industrialisation by 2020,
the government identified the importance of implementing a shift in VET teaching and
 HESWBL learning and its curricula to prepare a skilled Vietnamese labour force for the job market by
8,4 the end of 2015 (Mac, 2015; Thủ tướng chính phủ, 2012b). This shift in VET teaching
and learning has been communicated formally to every vocational college in Vietnam
(Mac, 2015). First, there was a shift in policies and modes of VET delivery. One of these
modifications was the shift from an academic year to a “credit” system in the MOET
programmes, and to a “module” system in the MOLISA programmes. Students were
530 required to earn enough “credit” for their graduation and were assessed after the completion
of each subject. In addition, the flexibility of the MOET training programmes has offered
students, for the first time, an opportunity to choose their preferred subjects and acquire
the skills and knowledge they need. This is a shift from traditional Vietnamese VET
to a modern system to meet the requirements for integration and globalisation.
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The second important shift of VET in Vietnam, as emphasised in the 2014 Vocational
Education Law and national strategies, is a variety of emerging requirements for VET
products (i.e. VET learners). Unlike traditional VET in Vietnam, which aimed to “train
learners or graduates with vocational knowledge and skills to serve in the State sector”
(between 1975 and 1986) or to serve and meet the requirements of a market economy in all
sectors (between 1995 and 2000) (Vo, 2012, p. 110), the modern VET system requires
a graduate with generic, soft and employability skills in addition to professional and
vocational knowledge and skills (Quoc hoi Viet Nam, 2015).

Internationalisation in Vietnamese tertiary education

International influences on Vietnamese education can manifest in different forms, depending
on the different political and historical contexts. Under the Chinese domination and French
colonisation periods prior to 1954, the cultural and social principles of the coloniser were
embedded and assimilated into the Vietnamese system. In recent decades, internationalisation
in the forms of curriculum and policy borrowing, “modelling”, “transfer”, “diffusion” and
“appropriation” of foreign practices have become common (Ngo, 2006). Internationalisation
activities have been crucial to the transformation of VET quality in Vietnam.
Internationalisation in VET shares some commonalities with the higher education sector
(Tran et al., 2014; Nguyen and Tran, 2017) and has been seen to mainly link to exchange
programmes, foreign investment in VET, curriculum and policy borrowing and collaborative
activities with foreign partners. However, unlike the higher education sector, student mobility
and collaboration in research are less common among internationalisation activities in VET
(Tran et al., 2014, 2017; Tran and Dempsey, 2017). Staff mobility is also one of the notable
features of internationalisation in Vietnamese VET. Previously, many exchange programmes
were established to send Vietnamese people to achieve professional and vocational skills in
France, America and countries in the former Soviet Union and its allies, or experts from those
countries came to provide VET in Vietnam. Nowadays, international co-operation in
vocational education has strongly developed in Vietnam (Vietnam TVET Report, 2011, 2013).
Bilateral and multilateral collaboration programmes from over 40 countries have
supported more sustainable development and transformational changes of vocational
education in Vietnam in all aspects, such as curriculum, technical support, staff training and
management skills, to improve the supply of labour with qualifications that meet the
demands of industry (Vietnam TVET Report, 2011, 2013). At the request of the Vietnamese
Government, in relation to the strategy of human development to 2020, international donors
such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, GTZ and AusAID are now investing
heavily in VET with the purpose of developing a skilled labour force for Vietnam.
For example, the Vietnam Germany Cooperation Technical Vocational Education and
Training Project has been carried out from 2008 till now with focus on supporting a
vocational training system that meets the needs of the business sector; the creation of
a differentiated regulatory framework; institutional development, including private and
 governmental training institutions; practice-oriented training; and improved opportunities Foreign
for women to access vocational training (General Department of Vocational Training, 2012). approaches for
Apart from international support programmes, at a national level, the cooperation sustainable
between vocational institutions and international partners is encouraged so as to contribute
to the development of VET in Vietnam. Many vocational institutes from developed development
countries such as Australia, America, Singapore, Germany, Japan and Korea have been
delivering their advanced training programmes in Vietnam. Vietnamese vocational learners 531
now are able to “study abroad” in Vietnam. Nevertheless, training programmes delivered by
enterprises receiving foreign investment, or under cooperative delivery, are mostly
concentrated in applied fields that the market is demanding, such as marketing, finance,
business and computer science. Technical fields (e.g. mechanics and electricity) are still in
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desperate need of international cooperation.

Thanks to the co-operated and international programmes in VET, Vietnamese VET
teachers and learners have good opportunities to move towards advanced training
programmes and engage in more sustainable and transformational changes. Furthermore,
teaching and managerial staff have been sponsored to attend international seminars and
conferences with the purposes of sharing experiences and approaches to update technology
as well as new teaching and management skills.
Nevertheless, there remain several concerns in VET internationalisation. First, the quality
of foreign VET institutes entering Vietnam in the role of investors should be carefully
considered. In addition, the lack of a national vocational skill framework, insufficient facilities,
curriculum, materials and qualified teaching staff with professional skills and foreign
languages are disadvantages for Vietnam’s VET sector in its efforts to integrate into the
region and the world. Moreover, the lack of policies and strategies in support of foreign
investments in VET is a barrier for foreign partners (Vietnam TVET Report, 2011, 2013).
In this paper, the term “Vietnamisation” is used to refer to how foreign ideologies
and practices have been adapted to suit Vietnamese traditions, values and
sociocultural conditions (Tran et al., 2014). The term “Western influence” is used to
indicate the external influences on Vietnamese education from France, USA, Russia and
other European countries (Tran et al., 2017). We use “Western” to generally refer to the
external influences on Vietnamese education from the “West” and articulate the nature of
influences in specific cases rather than assume that “Western countries” are homogenous
(Tran et al., 2017).

The study
This paper is derived from a qualitative study using three main approaches for data collection:
• document collection;
• observation of theory classes and workshops; and
• interviews (teachers, students and leaders).
Qualitative research is used in this study as it is characterised as concentrating on “process”
(the process of how people construe their experiences), “understanding” (how people make
sense out of their lives) and “meaning” (the meaning they attribute to their experience)
(Lee, Mitchell and Sablynski, 1999, p. 164). An important characteristic is that qualitative
research is naturalistic in focus; it centres on studying people, things and events in natural
and commonplace settings (Punch, 2013, p. 118). In other words, qualitative research is able
to capture what happens in the real world and to investigate how people act in life rather
than simply rely on their comments (Merriam, 2009). From those foundations, a qualitative
approach seemed appropriate to the nature and aims of this study, i.e. how teaching and
learning happens at in vocational settings.
 HESWBL Documentary analysis was used as a means of enriching understanding of VET policies,
8,4 the terms VET and vocational pedagogy, the approaches proposed by various scholars and
in analysing non-formal and formal VET in Vietnam. Observation was used as a tool to
monitor how the participants act in their natural settings and reflect on their teaching and
learning practices, and their behavioural patterns and activities. Participant observation
was employed to gain an insight into participants’ activities as well as validating the quality
532 of the data gathered. The main instrument for data collection for this study was
interviewing participants. It is a powerful way to “assess one’s perceptions, meanings,
definitions of situations and constructions of reality” and to understand people
(Punch, 2005, p. 168). Semi-structured interviews were used to elicit participants’ views
on issues including vocational teaching and learning, policies and strategies.
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The study includes 22 participants from three vocational education providers (i.e. one of
the oldest vocational colleges, one of the more successful foreign-funded vocational colleges,
and a family workshop with a significant number of learners) in a central area, which is
a new industrial zone and is requiring large numbers of qualified workers according to the
national plan in place. This paper focusses on observation and semi-structured interviews
with eight participants, including one leader, two teachers and five students. It focusses on
a Germany-funded vocational college in the northern central area of Vietnam that came
under the management of MOLISA. In addition, the German Government supported its
facilities, training programmes and teaching staff. It had the vital task of providing a large
number of skilled workers for the largest industrial zone in the northern central area.
Therefore, there were considerable government investments in human resources,
infrastructure and facilities as well as training programmes at this college. The college
had transferred its management authorities from foreign donors to the province, specifically
the supervision and management of German experts changed into Vietnamese ones.
The research targeted students/vocational learners and teachers in Mechanics for data
collection because Mechanics is one of four key sectors in the Vietnamese Vocational
Training Development Strategies designed to enable Vietnam to become an industrialised
country by 2020. All of the participants, with the exception of college leaders, have
undertaken their major learning/teaching in Mechanics.
The key criterion for selecting participants was based on the availability of volunteers.
After sending a formal invitation letter inviting school leaders to participate in the research,
and after gaining the approval of the college’s leaders and the Dean of the Mechanics Faculty,
an official group e-mail was sent to the staff calling for volunteers to participate in this
research. A plain language statement explained details of the research project and contained
other basic information related to the research, such as inclusion criteria, as follows:
• teachers must have a minimum of 5 years’ teaching experience, and be over 27 years
of age (a person with 5 years’ teaching experience after graduating from university/
college is approximately 27 years of age); and
• students/vocational learners must be students over 16 years of age.
Before starting our data collection, ethical approval was sought and a consent form with an
information sheet was sent to all participants. A clear explanation on the confidentiality of
participants’ identity and their organisations was provided. During field work and data
analysis, our roles as both an insider (teachers with rich experience in vocational education)
and an outsider (researchers who do not work in the participating organisations) were
always borne in mind to understand and present the data in an authentic way. It is
suggested that this will protect qualitative research from any taint of bias.
All data collected during observations, interviews and documents in Vietnamese
were coded in Vietnamese using Dedoose software after anonymising the participants
and sources (e.g. I: Interview, LP: lesson plan, LD: leader, S: student, T: teacher,
 O: observation, CL: college). The categories were based on the adapted framework related to Foreign
the roles of teachers, learners, nature of learning and moral education. All codes were approaches for
translated into English for writing up. The translation was double-checked and verified by a sustainable
Vietnamese PhD candidate in Linguistics and English.
The next section will focus on the analysis of the data from observation and interviews development
with the participants.
533
Data analysis and discussion of findings
This section discusses the findings from a case study with a foreign-funded vocational
college in central Vietnam. The study shows the co-existence of different foreign approaches
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and values underpinning pedagogical practices at the VET College, including Confucian,
French, Soviet and German practices, with which the College has interacted throughout its
development. It analyses how foreign practices and principles have been filtered and
adapted into the local context to bring transformational changes in vocational education.
The foreign-funded College, Hòa Bình (pseudonym), is a relatively new vocational
institution founded in 2007 in Central Vietnam under the management of MOLISA.
Previously, it was a vocational school which had opened in 2002 and was managed by the
provincial authority. This change of control and management resulted in an important shift
in the overall function of the College, described in detail below. Of particular interest were
the changes in the College’s training programmes under the foreign influence.
Hòa Bình College was established as part of an agreement between the Vietnamese and
German governments regarding two cooperative programmes, i.e., “Technical Cooperation”
and “Reform of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Vietnam”. The German
partner supported MOLISA in planning the national strategy for vocational education,
drafting the law on vocational education and setting up several vocational institutions in
some local areas in line with the German vocational training model. This was one of seven
colleges established throughout Vietnam under this agreement (Bo Ngoai Giao Webpage,
2015). German experts were also involved in the establishment of a demand-oriented TVET
system (Vietnam TVET Report, 2011).
Thanks to the partnership and foreign aid, Hòa Bình College was equipped with
advanced and standard facilities as well as infrastructures for better teaching and learning.
Since 2002, and before the college was upgraded, some members of the teaching staff were
either trained in Vietnam or sent to Germany for professional development in order to meet
quality requirements for staff and training requirements of the regulatory framework.
During the time of the cooperative project (2002–2007), some of the experts from the German
partner institution stayed at the College, supervising the teaching and learning. German
experts departed Hòa Bình College after the completion of the cooperative project in 2007;
they now return once a year for observation purposes.
This project was completed in 2007. Support extended to 11 vocational institutions
(Vietnam TVET Report, 2011) including Hòa Bình College. Whilst receiving support,
Hòa Bình College delivered a competency-based or module training programme (teaching in
accordance with a module – a small unit of competence) that focussed on the skills required
by certain vocations, for example, mechanic, electrician and IT technician (Duong, 2003).
The delivery of the module is understood as training that integrates theoretical knowledge
with practical skills to provide students with vocational competence.

Foreign influences on the pedagogical practices of Hòa Bình College

Since the College was established as a cooperative project following an agreement between
the German and Vietnamese governments, Western influences were consequently evident.
It was considered a unique opportunity to see a “new” and “fresh” foreign influence unfold.
 HESWBL Western influences were noted in the training programme, which was supported by Western
8,4 governments and followed a Western model. This is noted by the Director of Hòa Bình College:
This school was built under the Official Development Assistance of a Western country and copied a
German training program, and German designs for workshops and theory classrooms, and
entertainment areas. (I.CL2.LD)
Observations revealed that the workshops were designed and set up professionally to serve
534 practical learning purposes. The teachers said that apart from the infrastructure and
facilities, a western curriculum framework was used to develop the College’s training
programmes, and that its focus was on practice. In addition, as part of the agreement
between Germany and Vietnam, teachers were sent abroad for professional development
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and to learn new teaching methods. Upon their return, the teachers were confident that they
could deliver the module programmes and apply them flexibly depending on each situation.
Thus, Western influences were evident in the College, specifically in its infrastructure,
training programme and teaching staff.
Regarding teaching materials, during the interviews teachers stated that when preparing
their lesson plans, they used teaching materials translated from Russian, from the General
Department of Vocational Training (belonging to MOLISA), and from various Western
countries. This reflected the Soviet and Western influences on Vietnamese vocational training.
While in part influenced by Western (especially French) models, the Soviet influence was also
evident at this college. The school-based vocational training brought to Vietnam by the
French colonisers continues to influence vocational colleges throughout Vietnam.
The preference for traditional teaching methods at Hòa Bình College was due to the
influence of Confucianism, which considers teachers as knowledge experts and students as
recipients (Mai, 2010; Nguyen, 1999, 2013; Phan, 1998; Tran, 1998). In addition, a culture of
respect for teachers, which considers it impolite to interrupt them in class (Nguyen, 1999,
2013), were also characteristics of Confucianism reflected in the practices at the College.
Additionally, as the leader of the College explained when discussing the various obstacles
to VET development, placing a high value on qualifications (in effect downgrading vocational
training) and family power (e.g. obeying parents’ arrangements) mirrors the famous Confucian
saying: “Cha me đăt đâu, con ngô`i đó” (Children sit where their parents put them down).
Although various historical influences were found at Hòa Bình College, the pedagogical
practices had been appropriated and “Vietnamised”. The interviews with teachers revealed
that while new instructional methods and a new module delivery were being implemented,
traditional teaching methods co-existed in tandem. The teaching methods have been filtered
and modified to suit the learning environment and to achieve their desired goals,
i.e., knowledge and skills. Similarly, teaching materials have been adopted and adapted from
Soviet materials, from Western countries and from MOLISA. The teachers have Vietnamised
their teaching methods in their own ways for the purpose of improving the lessons.
In sum, while Hòa Bình College showed strong Western influences, particularly in its
infrastructure, staff training and teaching materials, Soviet, French and Confucian influences
existed in tandem. Although the College has unquestionably been greatly influenced by
Western countries, specifically Germany, it has formed its own curriculum, using the German
basic curriculum framework and adding other subjects considered relevant and suitable for
the local requirements. The creation of its own curriculum, a flexible combination of the
traditional ways of vocational teaching and learning in Vietnam and the German modern
guidelines underpin the “Vietnamese character” or “Vietnamisation” of this College.

Module training programme

The module training programme was first introduced to Hòa Bình College as part of the
cooperative project. Interestingly, the German module training programme piloted at the
 college has since been Vietnamised, and hence it is different from the original programme. Foreign
As the teacher who undertook the training for that programme explained: approaches for
In Germany, they train learners as I am doing here, integrated or focused on sub-skills[1]. However, sustainable
their programs introduced at this college must be different. One learner is able to lathe, weld and do development
other related jobs. In this case, graduates can do many jobs in the world of work without needing
retraining by the employers. In Vietnam situation and conditions, they [German experts] must
change to have a suitable training program. (I.CL2.T1) 535
The above mode of training was highly evaluated with a high rate of graduate employment.
Those who graduated from the first two courses under the German programmes at the
college could easily find jobs (I.CL2.T1).
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In 2007, Hòa Bình College came under MOLISA’s management. Since then, it has
compulsorily delivered MOLISA training programmes, carried out the teaching according to
modules and used methods suggested by MOLISA (I.CL2.LD) (Hòa Bình College website,
2013). Students are restricted in their choice of subjects, and must take part in examinations
after completing each module. Currently, 100 per cent of module training programmes have
been implemented at the College (Hòa Bình College Website, 2013).

Nature of learning activities

Authentic/practice – contrived/theory
The analysis of Hòa Bình College data reveals the variety in the nature of learning activities
along the continuum authentic–contrived and theory–practice.
Teaching and learning followed a well-planned procedure at Hòa Bình 2 and in its
workshops. The lesson plans and subject descriptions included steps and activities for each
step, and the expected roles of teachers and students (LP6.7.8.CL2). The extract shown
in Figure 1 illustrates a well-planned lesson.
The interview data revealed that teachers spent a substantial time before a teaching
period looking at the syllabus, preparing the content, teaching aids and related materials
and designing lesson plans using templates (I.CL2.T2). Preparing for classes is
time-consuming for the first and second years of teaching (I.CL2.T1). However, the more

Figure 1.
Extract from a
lesson plan of
Hòa Bình College
 HESWBL teachers taught, the less time they spent on preparing their lessons because they knew what
8,4 to teach and how. As one of the teachers explained, “We inherited, developed and improved
our next lessons” (I.CL2.T1).
In another lesson plan for a practical session of 21 h (per week), both teaching and
learning were well structured and planned (see Figure 1); for example, settling the class
(2 min), introduction to the lesson (2 min), explaining related theory and knowledge and
536 steps to practise (35 min), with approximately 12 min for practice as well as consolidation
and assessment (15 min). The major teaching activities were lecturing, explaining,
questioning and modelling; students were listening, thinking, answering questions and
“following the steps guided by the teacher” (Figure 2).
As suggested above, from the time of its establishment in 2007 and following the completion
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of the cooperative project, Hòa Bình College has delivered the MOLISA vocational curriculum
framework. Its training objectives were to equip students with practical vocational knowledge
and skills. For example, after completing their training courses, students were expected to
know how to calculate, develop, arrange, mix, cut metals and save the materials. They were
also expected to have gained the requisite skills to deploy the dimensions, to shape exactly, to
straighten steel in shapes, to cut and bend metals, and to drill holes to create products with
highly technical requirements in the form of tubes, frames, tanks, sinks, bunker-silos and dust
filters for industrial and civil works (Bo Lao dong – Thuong binh va Xa hoi, 2008). At the same
time, students were required to have developed suitable political attitudes, knowledge of
Vietnamese law, national security and defence, and other foundational knowledge such as
a foreign language, information technology and elements of environmental protection.
As Hòa Bình College also delivered the MOLISA programme, the allocation of time
to general education, theory and practice was the same as that offered by a government
college (see Table I).
This programme was supported by the students: “At the college, the teachers give us
more opportunity to practise than to learn theory” (I.CL2.S1, 2, 4, 5). Although the MOLISA
programme focussed more on practice (57.6 per cent of the total time spent learning) than
theory (38.9 per cent), there was no practicum for students. Students expressed their concern
about this, saying they did not have a chance to undertake the practicum. They considered
practicums very useful as they introduced them to a real-work environment, and how the
knowledge and skills they had gained could be applied there (I.CL2.S1 and S5). In other

Figure 2.
Extract from a lesson
plan for a practical
session at
Hòa Bình College
 words, because the students mainly gained their skills and knowledge in simulated Foreign
workshops and through learning activities, they had no experience of practice or approaches for
“observation” in authentic workplaces. sustainable
According to Gilardi and Lozza, teaching methods which are underpinned by facilitative
roles for teachers consist of learning through conversation, real-world problem-solving and development
enquiry, in which students either individually or in groups get involved in a process of
knowledge production and inquiry related to a certain specific problem (Gilardi and Lozza, 537
2009, cited in Lucas et al., 2012). Expert demonstration or lecturing, in which knowledge is
transmitted to students, is considered a didactic teaching method (Lucas et al., 2012).
The transmission of planned knowledge to the students was evident in the teaching and
learning at the college. It was evident in all lesson plans where teachers were expected to
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give lectures, explain the lesson, write on the blackboard and ask prompt questions to check
students’ understanding (LP.3.4.6.CL2; Figure 2 is an extract of a lesson plan). One teacher
stated during an interview:
I and other teachers often use traditional teaching methods to transfer the knowledge and skills to
students. If we do not give a lecture, use explanations and clarifications, students are not active to
do research by themselves. (I.CL2.T2)
Another said:
Methods I learned at university were different from the techniques I use to teach; however, I used
the traditional methods a lot. (I.CL2.T1)
The teaching methods that were applied at Hòa Bình College to provide students with the
required knowledge and skills reflected the didactic roles of teachers. The observation of a
theory classroom revealed that the teacher spent most of the time talking, and kept talking
until the end of the period (45 min) (O6.CL2). The teacher stopped for a few minutes to ask
whether any of the students wanted to ask questions.
Although the traditional teaching methods with knowledge transmission were the ones
largely found in the theory classrooms, computers were used as teaching aids in some
classrooms to attract students’ interest and diversify the teaching methods. This to
some extent limited overuse of the blackboard. In the workshops, one teacher demonstrated
the application of new technology, i.e., a computer, in his teaching methods, saying:
Previously, when the projector and this software were not used, I had to explain the theory and
write on the blackboard a lot. Then, it took me a substantial amount of time to instruct students in
detail because they had not practised before, so it was very hard for them. Now, students learn on
a computer, so they understand quickly. (I.CL2.T1)
Hòa Bình College approved the application of new teaching methods, integrated teaching
methods that would change the role of the teacher. New teaching methods – such as integrating
theory and practice and implementing problem-based approaches that would encourage
students to solve problems and involve them in discussing and reporting solutions – were being
piloted. The leader supported the transfer from an academic-year-training programme[2] to a

Major areas Allocation (45′/period) %

Table I.
General education (National security education, 450 ( ¼ 337 h 30 min) n/a Theory–practice
physical education, law, politics, IT and English) allocation in MOLISA
Core vocational subjects and modules (including 810 in theory (607 h 30 min) n/a curriculum framework
basic vocational subjects) 1,830 in practice (1,372 h 30 min) (cutting metals,
Total 3,090 (1,260 theory periods ¼ 945 h) 38.9 3.5% is taken MOLISA, college
1,830 practice periods ¼ 1,372 h 30 min 57.6 up by exams level, college 1)
 HESWBL module-training programme (module-based) focusing on sub-skills and competence (I.CL.LD).
8,4 These new approaches to teaching fulfilled the expectations of teachers, moving their practice
along the continuum from didactic towards more facilitative roles. Teachers were expected to
model, explain and guide students to achieve the required skills, observe their performance and
assess their skills according to these new pedagogical processes (O.CL2). The variety in the
roles of the teachers was visible in the lesson plans discussed above. As one teacher commented:
538 I found this new teaching module is ok. However, the teacher must work harder with a lot of
activities to help the students become creative. (I.CL2.T1)
As the leader of Hòa Bình College stated, in this module delivery, the teachers had to use
new teaching methods (i.e. be facilitators). One advantage was that it reduced the working
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time for teachers in the classrooms and workshops:

Teachers guided and students practised. Guidance often took up half an hour and then most of the
remaining time was observing students. It was not really complicated. (I.CL2.LD)
However, the teachers had to assume more roles in order to comply with the requirements of
the changed teaching methods. In one interview, a teacher said:
The teachers must change the teaching methods depending on each target and each student’s level.
Generally speaking, the change is not much. (I.CL2.T1)
Another teacher commented:
Traditional teaching methods – teachers read and students copy – are currently changing to
modern Western teaching methods, but there are still some factors that make the change
completely impossible. (I.CL2.T2)
As suggested above, the teachers could not change completely from traditional methods to
new methods or from traditional roles to new roles. Therefore, they often combined the two
where appropriate (I.CL2.T1, T2); for example, using the computer and projector to explicate
the problem on the machine more clearly, then questioning, explaining and lecturing.
In other words, a combination of the roles of the teachers along the facilitative and didactic
continuum was evident at this College.
One of the factors contributing to the difficulty of applying new methods (i.e. facilitating the
students’ learning) was that due to the large class sizes of 30 to 35 students, which meant the
teachers could not give individual attention to each student to facilitate their learning (I.CL2.T1).
The teachers also explained that many among them only reluctantly followed the module
delivery due to a lack of facilities and materials for use in practice. One of the requirements of
the module delivery was that teachers must integrate each sub-skill. It was felt that this was
impossible to perform well, given there were not enough materials for practice in large classes.
Apart from the student numbers and the lack of facilities, the regulations pertaining to
the working system and styles set out by the College, e.g., “teachers must not violate the
regulations on the teaching schedules and hours”, tended to reduce the teachers’
determination to change their teaching methods. Additionally, the points of reference
stipulated in the regulations regarding ranking of the working outcomes for bonus payment
to the teachers at Hòa Bình College may discourage the teachers from contemplating
changes. For example, regarding the ranking of the B group, if teachers opted to personally
change the teaching schedule in one given month, were late for class on four or five
occasions, left their classes early, took a longer break than the regulated time, or had a noisy
class, their salary could be “docked”.
Another role of the teachers addressed in the interviews was that the teachers must pass
on professional ethics, working discipline and expected behaviour in addition to vocational
skills and knowledge (I.CL2.T2). These conditions were also stipulated in the regulations on
working systems at this College: “Teachers must be the model in behaviour and professional
 ethics for students to mirror”. This requirement was included in the regulations pertinent to Foreign
the duties and principles of teachers in the Vietnamese Law on Education. Thus, according approaches for
to the above description, the teachers at the College executed a mixture of roles, which could sustainable
be plotted along the facilitative–didactic continuum.
development
Challenges
There are some key challenges encountered in the transformation of VET in Vietnam, 539
especially in relation to pedagogical practices, teachers and learners, and moral education.
The requirements of integrating into the regional and international communities are
impacting on VET in particular as it attempts to solve these challenges. The Confucian,
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French, Soviet and Western influences as well as the Vietnamisation of VET pedagogical
practices have also been raised. The policies, strategies, requirements and preparations for
modernisation and industrialisation have burdened Vietnamese VET, whose task is to
provide the country with a highly skilled labour force. The renovation and preservation of
traditional values and methods, along with inconsistent regulations of the planned reforms
and moves to a “modern” VET system, have presented challenges to VET pedagogical
practices, teachers and learners. Important challenges include outdated facilities and
teaching methods; a Confucian culture of passive learning; VET’s low status; the moral
requirements and restrictions on the roles of teachers, and a rigid curriculum.

Concluding remarks
The findings reveal the transformational changes in pedagogical practices related to the
increased need to move from the traditional didactic teaching to more self-directed learning
to meet the requirements of a modern vocational education system. In Hòa Bình College,
a foreign-run college where some teachers were trained in Europe, some teachers were more
likely to attempt to encourage self-directed learning among their students. In these
situations, the roles of teachers and learners changed. Teachers were no longer only
knowledge transmitters, nor were students only passive receivers. The findings indicated
situations in which the teachers and learners acted in multiple roles, as both practical and
moral guides in classrooms and workshops.
In a word, a mixture of the nature of learning activities, the role of the teacher and the
role of the learner were evident in Hòa Bình College. Moral education was formally
delivered, and constituted an important part of the vocational curriculum, i.e., the training
and preparing of the students with readiness skills for work. There was marked evidence of
Western influence at the College in concert with Confucian and Soviet influences. Figure 3
provides a picture of the pedagogical practices at the College.
This study shows a need to develop a new “Vietnamese VET pedagogy” that adopts
and adapts contemporary international influences for sustainable development and

Workshop Classroom

Authentic/ Contrived/
Practice Theory

Facilitative Didactic
Figure 3.
Summary of
pedagogical practices
Self- at Hòa Bình College
Directed
managed
 HESWBL transformational changes in vocational education. This VET pedagogy would use what
8,4 has been described in this study as the Vietnamisation process, which ensures that
new approaches to teaching and learning would suit the Vietnamese historical and
political situation while capitalising on layers of international influences – Confucian,
French, Soviet and Western. A mere dependence on foreign practices is not sustainable in
the Vietnamese context with its own distinctive political, cultural and historical
540 characteristics. Borrowing foreign practices can represent a “quick fix”, but it is an
unsustainable approach if it is based on the principle of using a model from a “superior”
education system to solve the problems of the domestic system (Morris, 2012). Thus,
“selective borrowing” and local appropriation are needed due to contextual differences
across nation states’ education systems, and are, therefore, essential to effective
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borrowing and sustainable education (Steiner-Khamsi and Waldow, 2012). The challenge
will be to develop a fluid and effective combination of didactic pedagogies that emphasise
theory over practice and more facilitative pedagogies to develop skills for employability,
team work, communication and self-study. Further, for more sustainable development in
vocational education, the Vietnamese VET pedagogy will need to be responsive to the
dual challenges of incorporating the demands of the market economy and the
socialist model.
A key part of the emerging Vietnamese VET pedagogy will be a different balance
between theory-based classes and work experience. The findings of this study indicate the
strength of the current emphasis on theory-based delivery, and the lack of opportunities for
authentic workshop learning and even fewer for work-based learning.
Similarly, a shift will be required in the role of the learners if they are to engage in these
new pedagogical practices and acquire the employability skills described above. The
study found that the participating students/vocational learners were predominantly
passive learners who followed the orders or guidance of the teachers. Participation in the
new pedagogical practices will require active and collaborative learners who accept a shift
from being dependent learners, who rely on their teachers for knowledge and skills, to
independent individuals. This represents a challenge for many Vietnamese learners, who
have been characterised as students who “learn purposely to pass exams to achieve a high
mark, without actually gaining in-depth learning” (Nguyen, 2012, p. 152). Learning by rote
and merely producing knowledge without creative and critical thinking is unlikely to
enable students to be ready for the local and the globalised labour market’s demands
(Tran et al., 2014). Changing the awareness of learners will be a necessary step in the
renovation of VET pedagogical practices. This significant shift will need time and
thorough preparation. The development and implementation process of Vietnamese VET
pedagogy needs to ensure that teachers and learners are supported in this major
transition. Therefore, a focus of future research could be VET teachers’ values, beliefs and
identity and how these are challenged within the context of integration, modernisation
and industrialisation in Vietnam. To what degree can current teachers accept changes in
thinking and acting as modern teachers, with teaching practices that will fit well with
student changes (e.g. autonomy and self-direction)? Could further studies also explore the
concept of culture in Vietnamisation?

Notes
1. Sub-skills such as welding, cutting metal, lathing in Mechanics.
2. An academic-year-training programme is semester-based (from 18–20 weeks/semester, subjects
start from the first day till the last day including one examination week. Students’ completion is
counted with semesters: e.g., six semesters or eight semesters depending on each level).
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Further reading
Dang, Q.A. (2011), “Internationalisation of higher education: China and Vietnam”, MSc thesis,
Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen.
Tran, L.T. and Marginson, S. (2018), Internationalisation in Vietnamese Higher Education, Springer,
New York, NY.

About the authors

Tien Thi Hanh Ho completed her doctoral studies on vocational education at the University of
Technology Sydney, Australia. She is Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages, Administration and
Tourism and Director of Soft Skills, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Center, Hue Industrial
College. Her research interests include employability skills, work readiness, professional development
and vocational education, specifically vocational pedagogy and international impacts on Vietnamese
education. She has contributed some book chapters and papers in those areas.
Ly Thi Tran is Associate Professor in the School of Education, Deakin University and Australian
Research Council Future Fellow. Her research focusses on international students, vocational education,
employability and the New Colombo Plan. Ly has been awarded four grants from the Australian
Research Council and published intensively on work-integrated learning for international students.
Ly’s book, Teaching International Students in Vocational Education: New Pedagogical Approaches,
won the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) Excellence Award for Best
Practice/Innovation in International Education. Ly Thi Tran is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: ly.tran@deakin.edu.au

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