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VIETNAM - Support to Bac Kan College, assessment and resultsRetrospective of Intervention – How did we do?
The Bac Kan Vocational Training and Education (Phase II) intervention was set out to develop the Bac Kan College to an attractive, well-managed and financially robust school providing vocational education and training that meets the opportunities and demands of the regional labour market as well as the sociocultural expectations of the local population. The intervention has come to an end and an external evaluation team looked back at achievements and challenges as well as lessons learned.
Agro-forestry building
The evaluation confirmed that the College’s overall management was improved through the strategic plan and the human resource development roadmap, both developed via a participatory approach that ensures continuous development as well as staff skills and knowledge. The College’s network expanded nationally (to other TVET schools) as well as internationally (to Laos VET schools and the VET-Toolbox, among others) for training, curricula development as well as for funding purposes.
As far as the market- and client-oriented educational and training offers are concerned, the College made advancements in terms of curricula developments, the setting up of the Agroforestry Faculty, the implementation of internship programmes for enrolled students and a job search service for graduates. These improvements can be seen through both the results of labour market studies and a tracer study; indeed, the graduates’ employment rate increased by 6% between 2016 and 2020, reaching nearly 88%. Furthermore, employer satisfaction with graduates from BKC reached 84.4%, which is an increase of 14.4% compared to 2016.
According to the evaluation, one of the major strengths was the intervention’s relevance – “happening at the right time in the right place”.
Feeling the pressure to become a financially independent institution, the College needed support to strengthen capacities and build a reputation. Furthermore, the evaluation team highlighted the increase of the competence and confidence of students and staff. This combination of professional and personal development was crucial for the realisation of the objective, namely the promotion of employment and livelihood development.
Veterinary training
Even though the intervention was successful in many aspects, the evaluation reported on the challenges that lie ahead. While the institution is generating some revenue representing at the time of the evaluation 19.3% of the total budget, the current income-sourcing activities are not sufficient to support the College financially without an external financial support. New regulations prohibiting the operation of independent centres create another obstacle for a financial independence.
A second big challenge is graduate employment. The rate of lower-quality jobs (i.e. working for households) is still relatively high (21.64%). According to the evaluation team this is related to graduates being reluctant to move away from home to find higher-quality jobs outside the province. In order to increase the willingness to leave the hometown, the evaluation recommends that College could offer trainings in social skills, increased internet access for information and communication as well as put a stronger focus on the students’ orientation.
Overall, the intervention was relevant and supported the development of the College to become a more effective and efficient institution. The increase in confidence and competence of the staff led to higher commitment, to the improvement of management and consequently the creation of an attractive educational and training offer that can ultimately lead to the promotion of employment and livelihood development in the province.
Students learn muchroom growing
Lesson 1: Activities were implemented “at the right time” and targeted “the right institution”.
Lesson 2: A comprehensive and flexible approach was based on the needs of the beneficiaries, thus appropriate and covering key aspects.
Lesson 3: The support of the Bac Kan provincial agencies, in particular the Provincial People’s Committee and the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, as well as the high commitment of all implicated staff (management, faculties, project and technical advisor) are undeniable success factors.
Also see: Project Steering Committee Meeting coverege on Bac Kan TV
The Bac Kan, Technical and Vocational Education and Training - Phase II project (VIE/034), was funded by the Luxembourg Cooperation and implemented by LuxDev
