Vietnamese needs for developing Education 4.0

Rethinking learning towards education 4.0 (part 2)

The project is strongly based on Vietnamese needs that align with a range of policies, strategies and resolutions with an effort to reform its education by 2020 towards Industrial Revolution 4.0. Specifically, the Fundamental and Comprehensive Reform of Higher Education in Vietnam 2006–2020 (Nam, 2013) and the National Human Resource Development 2011–2020 have been paid attention to provide lifelong learning and equip required skills (i.e., soft skills, technical skills and interpersonal skills) for all students. In addition, the Vietnamese Prime Minister issued Directive No.16/CT-TTG regarding “On strengthening the access to the Fourth Industrial Revolution” in May 2017 and requested a dramatic change in education with regards to policies, contents and methods to provide human resource adapted well with constant changes and new technology trends in Industry 4.0. To turn those ambitions on reforming education into practice, the Vietnamese government has been encouraging collaboration between educational institutions and international agencies.

The needs for an emergent change in Vietnamese education are realized in a new vocational education law taking effect on July 2015. Learners’ needs to be equipped with integrated skills (i.e. working independently, being creative, and be able to apply modern technology and adapt to a new working environment) are manifested in this new law. As Ho and Tran (2018, p. 528) claim, such new skill requirements are challenging educational institutions in Vietnam and “require shifts in approaches to learning and teaching”, and in particular, “the mismatch between the existing curriculum and the demands of employers must be addressed in the transformation of Vietnam into a modernised and industrialised nation”. Additionally, the lack of close linkages among Vietnam’s higher education institutes, the poor quality and inefficiency, outdated teaching and learning methods, as well as limited and inefficient resources for education, generally are challenging Vietnam towards the 4th industrial revolution (Do & Do, 2014). The teachers should be the changemakers in reforming the Vietnamese higher education in line with the EMVITET project supporting Vietnamese higher education institutes.

From Vietnamese partners, collected data reveals the same goals. The focus is on changing the existing curriculum towards a competence-based curriculum with student-centred education (e.g. DN-UTE) and to meet the demands of the industry (e.g. HCMUTE). They want to change their learning and teaching cultures, enrich face-to-face learning by online learning (e.g., LHU) and focus on setting linkage with industry partners to design a model of work-based learning or learning by doing. They feel that by training teachers they can develop new teaching pedagogy, education technology and create an innovative online learning environment. Vietnamese institutions are in great need of developing their education and they feel that EMVITET project is taking its efforts to bring them into practice.