World Didac 2008
Described by its organisers as "Vietnam's International Exhibition on Education Materials and Professional Training", the first World Didac Asia was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from 3 - 5 December 2008.
The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and 15 well-known firms which belong to the German education organisation Didacta Verband exhibited at the fair.
Since BIBB has many years' experience working with the offices in Vietnam that are responsible for vocational training there, the Didacta Verband asked BIBB to organise a German-Vietnamese workshop on the subject of 'products offered by the German education sector to support the reform of vocational education and training in Vietnam'.
This workshop brought German exhibitors together with relevant decision-makers in Vietnam to determine if and which products offered by the German education sector the Vietnamese side could turn to good use for reforming vocational education and training in Vietnam. Some 120 Vietnamese disseminators from public and private vocational schools, plus enterprises and the directorate general for vocational training at the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) attended the workshop.
Vietnam's vocational training sector is in great need of reform because there will be strong demand for skilled workers in the future and they will have to be trained on a practice-oriented basis.
A reform of the Vietnamese training system can be tackled with the help of a German partnership and a German-Vietnamese pilot project. Need-based training measures and product-specific continuing training schemes could be realised in close collaboration with German initial and continuing vocational training providers and instruction material companies.
