TTLA: Vocational training for ethnic minority youth in Hoa Binh province

1. Full name of doctoral candidate: Bui Thanh Minh 2. Gender: Male

3. Date of birth: March 8, 1988 4. Place of birth: Hai Phong

5. Decision No. 4618/QD-XHNV dated December 29, 2016, of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, recognizing the doctoral student.

6. Changes in the training process: None

7. Thesis title: Vocational training for ethnic minority youth in Hoa Binh province

8. Major: Social Work 9. Code: Pilot Program

10. Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Hoa

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis

- Regarding vocational training needs: The majority of ethnic minority youth surveyed in Hoa Binh province have a need for vocational training and highly value its usefulness. Ethnic minority youth want to learn various trades, from agriculture and industry to service professions such as beauty. The training levels they are interested in cover all levels, including elementary, intermediate, and advanced, as well as dual training programs. The primary training locations they desire are within the provinces. During the process of accessing vocational training, ethnic minority youth face difficulties related to tuition fees, time constraints, learning expectations, and job prospects. Therefore, developing support services and activities alongside expanding the network and improving the quality of vocational training is necessary to attract more ethnic minority youth to participate in vocational training more effectively. Factors such as gender, living standards, and geographical location influence the specific needs of ethnic minority youth in accessing vocational training.

- Regarding policy systems and practical implementation: The vocational training system has developed both in quantity and quality through the number of training facilities and capacity, the modernity and up-to-date nature of programs and curricula, and the qualifications of teachers. Support policies have also contributed to creating resources for ethnic minority youth to overcome financial, social, and capacity-based difficulties in vocational training. However, vocational training for ethnic minority youth still has many limitations. Vocational training activities have not truly attracted a large number of ethnic minority youth. Vocational training is only a last resort for ethnic minority youth when they fail to get into university or they attend only because of tuition and study cost support. Many ethnic minority youth choose to work in unskilled labor rather than pursue vocational training. In reality, vocational training activities only attract policy-beneficiary households and married rural women. Many young people choose vocational training simply to attend high school free of charge or with financial support, leading to a waste of resources in vocational training for ethnic minority youth.

- Causes of limitations: Through analysis, the two biggest weaknesses in the implementation of vocational training policies for ethnic minority youth in Hoa Binh province in particular and ethnic minority areas in general are the unreasonable decentralization of power among stakeholders and the lack of an institution to provide objective information to raise awareness and enhance the understanding of ethnic minority youth regarding their individual needs, support policies, and labor market information.

- The Role of Social Work: Social work needs to be integrated into the implementation process to fulfill two important roles: advocating for policies to empower ethnic minority youth and providing career guidance to raise awareness and understanding, thereby enabling them to rationally "self-determine" their vocational training choices. Three models have been proposed for analysis of their applicability in Hoa Binh and Vietnam. The career guidance unit model, a combination of vocational training and social work at the provincial and district levels, is recommended due to its suitability to the actual conditions.

12. Practical applications: Social work models in career guidance and vocational training for ethnic minority youth.

13. Further research directions: Assessing the specific impact of vocational training on the employability, income improvement, skills development, and social integration of ethnic minority youth.

14. Published works related to the Thesis

1. Bui Thanh Minh (2019), “Limitations in the vocational training policy system for ethnic minority youth - A case study of Hoa Binh province”,Journal of Policy and Management(VNU)35 (3), pp. 57-67.

2. Bui Thanh Minh (2019), “Asymmetric information among stakeholders and consequences in vocational training for ethnic minority youth in Hoa Binh province”,VNU Journal of Social Sciences and HumanitiesVol 5 (5), pp.616-629.

                                                                     INFORMATION ON DOCTORAL THESIS

1. Full name: Bui Thanh Minh 2. Sex: Male

3. Date of birth: March 8^th1988 4. Place of birth: Hai Phong

5. Admission decision number: 4618/QD-XHNV Dated: December 29^th2016 by the Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU.

6. Changes in academic process: No

7. Official thesis title: Vocational training for ethnic minority youth in Hoa Binh province

8. Major: Social work 9. Code: Pilot training

10. Supervisors: Associate Professor. Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Hoa

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

- Regarding vocational training needs: The ethnic minority youth in our survey highly appreciate the usefulness of vocational training to the youth's future. Therefore, in their thought, they desired to take part in a vocational training program. Their desired vocational training programs were various, from agricultural, industrial to serving sectors. The training level was offered by them including whole levels listed elementary, intermediate, college, and parallel training system. Most of the youth in the survey wanted to study in their province, such as in their communes, their districts, and other locations in Hoa Binh province. There were difficulties that the student had to overcome in their training process such as: studying expenses, timeline, expectation of apprenticeship, desire to find jobs... Therefore, it is time that authorities developed supportive services and activities to help ethnic minority youth in accessing and tackling their problems in vocational training. With better facilitation, the vocational training programs could attract more people to attend and also enhance the effectiveness of the programs. The factors of gender, the standard of living, geographic location, and other aspects might affect the specific needs in accessing vocational training activities of the ethnic minority youth.

- Regarding vocational training policy system and its implementation in reality: Since the 10 previous years, the vocational training program in Hoa Binh province has been developed not only in the quantity but also in its quality. It was proven by the increasing number of training institutions and their training capacity. Supportive policies have also contributed to creating more resources to support the ethnic minority youth to overcome their financial, social, and studying capacity constraints in the training process. However, there are some significant limitations in the vocational training system. Firstly, vocational training is not attracted activities and it stands as the second choice of the youth when they are not able to get into a university. Even, they chose to become unskilled labors instead of taking part in vocational training courses. Secondly, many of the youths attending vocational training courses because of the financial support. In reality, vocational training programs only attract more hazardous households, rural married women. Young people exploit vocational programs as the road to freely study high school. As a result, the effectiveness of the policy system is not as high as the state's and society's expectations.

- Regarding the causes of limitations: There are two most significant weaknesses that negatively affect the implementation of the vocational training system. The first weakness is the unreasonable powering decentralization among stakeholders. Another shortcoming is the lack of mechanism providing independent information on supportive policies, labor market, individual needs. They must be changed to construct a more effective vocational training system for the ethnic minority youth.

- Regarding the role of social work in supporting ethnic minority youth in accessing vocational training services: Social work is an effective tool to improve and enhance the quality of vocational training policy system for the ethnic minority youth. Social work advocates the policy to empower the youth. In addition, social work provides vocational for the youth to raise their awareness and knowledge to help them decide an appropriate program by themselves. Three models have been proposed and analyze the applicability in Hoa Binh specifically and Vietnam generally. The third model constructed by the combination of the vocational training department and the provincial as well as district social work agencies is recommended because of its suitability for practicality.

12. Practical applicability, if any: Social work models applied in vocational guidance and training for ethnic minority youth

13. Further research directions, if any: Impact evaluation on ethnic minority youth's job seeking, income, social skills development of vocational training.

14. Thesis-related publications:

1. Bui Thanh Minh (2019), “The Limitations of Vocational Training Policies for Ethnic Minority Youth – A Case Study in Hoa Binh Province”,VNU Journal of Science: Policy and Management StudiesVol 35 (3), pp.57-67.

2. Bui Thanh Minh (2019), “Asymmetric information among stakeholders and consequences in vocational training for ethnic minority youth in Hoa Binh province”,VNU Journal of Social Sciences and HumanitiesVol 5 (5), pp.616-629.

3. Bui Thanh Minh (2019), “The limitation in vocational training for ethnic minority youth – From policy perspectives”,Economic and Forecast JournalVolume 28, pp. 50-53.