Vocational schools to go green

At a workshop on “Greening TVET Institutes” held earlier this week in HCM City, Dang Minh Su, head of the Vocational Education and Training Division at the city’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that TVET institutes would play a key role in sustainable development by training workers in green practices. 

UNESCO defines greening as the pursuit of knowledge and practices with the intention of becoming more environmentally friendly.

“Well-trained workers will be needed to apply environmentally friendly technologies in production,” Su said.

Technical vocational education and training is the key to achieve the goals of the National Green Growth Strategy by 2020, he added.

Su said the leaders of TVET schools should include green-growth subjects in their curricula.

Workshop speakers discussed the criteria, process and methods for sustainable development using a whole-institution approach to green their institutions.

Nguyen Thi Hang, rector of the College of Technology II in HCM City, said that to meet the demand of green growth, human resources, including 80 per cent of graduates from TVET institutes, should be trained in green skills, which are defined by UNESCO as the “knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society”.

Christian Knuppert, a technical advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, said that TVET institutes should embark upon “a significant change process and enhance cooperation with the business sector to be a driver of green economic growth”.

“Change is never easy and requires good strategies to be successful,” he said.-