Enhancing the Effectiveness of Vocational Education in Vietnam
Is it possible to make technical and vocational education and training (TVET) more effective and responsive to the needs of enterprises, learners and the labour market in Vietnam?
DERG and the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) have set up a collaborative research project that will study whether two interventions-soft skills training and job counselling services-that complement an existing vocational educational curriculum, can enhance the labour market impacts of TVET.
The project will focus on vocational colleges in Vietnam and address two key difficulties students face. These difficulties are:
- the gap in the necessary skills: students graduate with inadequate skills or skills that are not in demand in the labour market,
- the mismatch between students and jobs/employers, resulting in low rates of employment and job retention.
The project will contribute to the existing literature by examining the potential role of labour market intermediaries –such as career counsellors– in relaxing information constraints. Moreover, it will provide causal evidence on how counsellors change job recommendations based on the level of soft skills of job candidates.
This research is of immediate relevance to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly to SDG4 and its targets that aim to substantially increase the number of youth with relevant skills for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship, and reduce gender disparities in access to these skills. It also relates directly to target under SDG8 aim to reduce the proportion of youth without employment and skills, and contribute to the development of a global strategy for youth employment.
Researchers
| Name | Title | Job responsibilities | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finn Tarp | Professor | Development Economics; Poverty; Income Distribution and Growth; Micro- and Macroeconomic Policy and Modeling |
|
Funded by:
Enhancing the Effectiveness of Vocational Education in Vietnam is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark after approval by The Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU).
Period: January 2020 - December 2022
Contact
Principal investigator Finn Tarp
External members:
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smriti Sharma | Assistant Professor | ||
| Saurabh Singhal | Assistant Professor | ||
| Diego Ubfal | Assistant Professor | ||
| Lore Vandewalle | Associate Professor | ||
| Dao Quang Vinh | Senior Researcher | ||
| Nguyen Than Tuan | Data Analyst | ||
| Hoang Manh Cam | Researcher |