During the five-day course, 25 department specialists, representatives of vocational schools and enterprises will work with international experts from GTZ, Inwent, a capacity-building company.

He said there is a lack of planning and conceptual thinking in both individual ASEAN countries and in ASEAN as a bloc. As a result, the National Qualification Framework will be a prerequisite for developing a trans-national or even regional labour market.

The project, organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and Inwent, will strengthen ASEAN integration.

With similar projects in Laos and Indonesia, the three countries are creating a regional framework, said Joe Wagner, Inwent senior consultant.

There are many kinds of qualifications for vocational training in Vietnam, but they were contradictory.
The new framework can act as skills recognition and certification for Vietnam since there is no national qualification, said Wagner.

According to a World Bank survey, 60 percent of graduates from vocational schools in Vietnam must be retrained on the job.

Most enterprises retrained graduates because they lack practical knowledge, said Nguyen Duc Tri from the Vietnam Institute of Science and Education.

He added that the small budget for vocational training is the main cause of low quality vocational education and workers in Vietnam.

Vietnam has built 48 vocational standards for 48 occupations, but there is still a long way to go as there are 300 occupations in Vietnam.