Following opening remarks from Aus4Skills Vietnam Program Director Ms. Jennie Dehn and Dr. Phạm Vũ Quốc Bình, Deputy Director General, Department of Vocational and Continuing Education and Training (DVCET), Chisholm and Audit Express formally commenced the Knowledge Exchange in Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training, one activity in the Aus4Skills project “Promoting industry linkages in the Vocational Education and Training in Vietnam”.
19 other participants including senior leaders from Vietnamese VET Colleges, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, other DVCET officials and a VET Accreditor from the HCMC University of Technology and Education joined Deputy Director General Pham for a 2-day online Introductory Workshop on the 10th and 12th of June.
The Introductory Workshop is the first of a 4-part program running over the next 2 months. During the Introductory Workshop, participants received an overview of Australia’s national VET regulatory standards, learned from and contributed to discussions that compared regulation of VET in Vietnam & Australia, and were briefed on Chisholm’s approach to academic quality, governance, compliance and continuous improvement.
Stage 2 of the program, which sees participants take part in a week-long Knowledge Exchange in Australia, formally begins on Monday 16th June. During their time in Melbourne, participants, Chisholm and Audit Express VET specialists will together explore a comprehensive range of Quality Assurance topics in detail through active engagement in sessions, workshops with guest presenters, case studies, site visits, peer-to-peer discussions, critical reflection and planning sessions and networking events.
Tôi rất mong muốn và đề nghị các thầy các cô các thành viên trong đoàn tích cực chủ động để học hỏi thảo luận chia sẻ những kinh nghiệm của Việt Nam. Tiếp thu những kinh nghiệm của Úc và từ đó thì không những là cải thiện được hệ thống đảm bảo chất lượng bên trong của nhà trường mà còn giúp cho các cơ quan quản lý Nhà nước trong việc xây Dựng luật cũng như là triển khai luật sau này.
I sincerely hope and encourage all teachers and members of the delegation to actively and proactively engage in learning, discussion, and sharing of Vietnam’s experiences. At the same time, to absorb Australia’s experiences, so that not only can we improve the internal quality assurance system of our institutions but also support government agencies in developing and implementing legislation in the future. (Dr. Phạm Vũ Quốc Bình)
In addressing how this initiative builds on previous Aus4Skills training and feedback from participants who expressed strong interest in learning more from Australian VET colleges, particularly in benchmarking quality assurance systems and applying internal and risk-based quality assurance approaches to review and enhance institutional QA processes and tools, Jenny said to participants of this program:
“…I am confident that your experiences in Australia, especially the field visits to leading VET institutions and QA providers, will offer practical insights and knowledge to help you meet evolving market demands and applying emerging QA technologies in your roles. I hope this experience inspires you to transform QA practices at your respective institutions, whether in government agencies or VET colleges, to better align with the growing needs to connect VET with industry requirements for our VET college leaders and educators. This knowledge exchange was technically designed in response to your recent survey feedback on external QA.”
The final 2 stages of the activity involve coaching participants in customised workplace application projects and a one-day consultation workshop in Hanoi to share learnings that can be put into practice in the Vietnamese context.
The project team is led by Dr Sam McCurdy, Associate Director Academic Quality alongside Mr. Kevin Ekendahl, CEO and Founder of Audit Express. The team of technical specialists also includes Carolyn Stanton and Anna Shaw from Chisholm and Dr Chau Ly Thi Minh from Audit Express.
Key learning outcomes of this activity are to deepen participants’ understanding of:
- quality management, control, assurance and improvement, with a focus on the risk-based and digital internal QA approaches and processes,
- Australian best practices in developing and reviewing internal QA tools that can be implemented in participants’ organisations, and
- risk-based external quality assurance in Australian VET and effective use of external specialists to advise on and independently verify VET provider activities.
This relevant and practical activity builds on previous training in understanding vocational competence and industry currency for VET educators delivered by Aus4Skills and contribute to end-of-program outcomes for the VET Project under Aus4Skills Phase 2. The activity will equip participants to adopt (external) risk-based QA approaches and digitalisation of QA processes to ensure accountability and autonomy of VET institutions in Vietnam, as mandated by the Government of Vietnam pursuant to Decision 2239 and in support of Vietnam’s vocational education development strategy 2021-2030.
Chisholm and Audit Express, are proud to have been awarded the tender for this Aus4Skills Knowledge Exchange program focused on Quality Assurance in VET. We look forward to partnering with our Vietnamese counterparts to deliver meaningful outcomes and sharing more about their experiences of this activity and its impact in the coming days and weeks.
Aus4Skills is the Australian Government’s human resource development program that supports Vietnam’s ambitions of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2045.
Chris Hogg is the Global Business Development Manager at Chisholm Institute. The Koala thanks Chris for permission to reproduce this article, which was first published on LinkedIn here.
Photo: Dr. Phạm Vũ Quốc Bình, Deputy Director General, Department of Vocational and Continuing Education and Training (DVCET)
