Ministry of Education: Saying that universities take all candidates from vocational schools is self-deprecating

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son shared at the conference - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

At the conference on implementing vocationaleducation and continuing education enrollment in 2025, held on the morning of May 16, leaders of a number of colleges pointed out difficulties and obstacles in recruiting intermediate and college level students in vocational education.

Admissions are difficult because some universities have 'extremely low' entrance standards

At the conference, Ms. Phan Thi Le Thu - Vice Principal of Far East College (HCMC) - said that one of the things that makes it difficult for vocational schools to recruit students is "the university's entrance standards". According to her, there are universities with extremely low entrance standards, and average students can still be admitted to university.

"Because of the psychology of many students and parents favoring degrees, 100% of parents want their children to go to university, and are more proud when their children enter a university instead of going to a college, studying college and then transferring to university... Many parents have sent their children to a university 'at random', without caring about what the school is like, whether the major is suitable or not, and will think about it after finishing school," said Ms. Thu.

Mr. Pham Xuan Khanh - Principal of Hanoi College of Technology - said that during the enrollment process, the school committed to students that 100% of graduates would have jobs or be able to create their own jobs, but in reality, enrollment was still very difficult.

"The school has to "shoulder up" and "knock on the doors" of junior high schools, high schools, and continuing education centers to introduce the training program to learners. This method is also difficult, costly, and ineffective," he said.

According to Mr. Dang Viet Xo - Principal of Vietnam College of Industry and Trade - when talking about college admissions, we must mention university admissions, "university training, very high quality training must be commensurate with the input to be of quality".

"The university enrollment target for 2024 is 551,000, while in 2025, according to the report, the college and intermediate enrollment target is 530,000. I find this very unreasonable, unbalanced between occupations, training levels, and loss of connectivity between vocational education and university education.

"Elite university education should be recruited to a certain extent, the rest should be reserved for vocational education," Mr. Xo said.

Mr. Dang Viet Xo - Principal of Vietnam College of Industry and Trade - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

Don't think of university as "teacher" and college as "worker"

Speaking at the conference's conclusion, Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son said that if vocational schools want to improve, they must change themselves, change their thinking, and their way of looking at problems.

Because in reality, the school only looks from its own perspective, looking at the enrollment quota and the number of students recruited. No one has said why the school exists or what its mission is.

According to him, education is a special public service, authorized by the state to educational institutions to perform. The goal of existence is to train and develop people, provide resources for socio-economic development for the country, and bring better values ​​to learners. If these two things are done well, the number of students will increase.

With vocational education, this is an essential public service that must be approached in a market-oriented manner, ensuring people's right to learn and right to choose.

He emphasized that we cannot hinder students' path to university education just because we want more sources of enrollment for vocational education. Doing so will further lower the role of vocational education.

"If we keep seeing difficulties, we propose to the ministry how to divide the streams, increase the university floor score, tighten the universities, and communicate that there are "too many teachers and not enough workers" to elevate ourselves and lower the universities. This is the wrong approach and we cannot go far if we continue to approach it this way.

"University is not necessarily a "teacher", learning a trade is not necessarily a "worker". Saying that universities take all the candidates only puts us down", Mr. Son said.

According to him, vocational schools must ask themselves why they cannot enroll many students, why students do not choose them, and whether the jobs and incomes of graduates at all levels are good or not?

Is the training model not suitable when the school wants students to finish grade 9, study 1-2 more years of intermediate level to go to work immediately - is this suitable for the psychology of the students' age, while they want to have knowledge for long-term development?

Mr. Son stated that vocational education is a choice, not a compulsion. According to him, schools should discuss how to improve the quality of training, how to design subject programs, innovate teaching and learning methods, apply technology, and most importantly, train teachers.

In addition, schools must change their communication messages, provide the most suitable options for students, help students feel secure in their choices, and provide complete and transparent information.

This year, the Ministry of Education and Training is ready to open a common admission system to support vocational colleges to participate in the common university entrance exam on a voluntary basis, creating a fairer and more transparent competitive environment.

In 2024, junior colleges and colleges nationwide will enroll 2.43 million students, reaching 100% of the set plan, of which approximately 430,000 will enroll college and junior college students (220,000 college students, 310,000 junior college students).

Besides the good recruiting majors, there are also majors and professions that are difficult to recruit, concentrated in the fields of heavy, toxic and dangerous training, such as mining, mines, tunnels; waste treatment, environment...

By 2025, the vocational education system aims to enroll 2.43 million students, including 530,000 college and intermediate level students; and about 1.9 million primary and other vocational training programs.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bo-giao-duc-noi-dai-hoc-lay-het-thi-sinh-cua-truong-nghe-la-tu-ha-thap-ban-than-20250516162752403.htm