Teachers share knowledge with Vietnam colleges
TEACHERS and representatives from a Valleys college have been helping to improve the quality of education for people in Vietnam.
Education experts from Coleg y Cymoedd have partnered with five vocational colleges in the south-east Asian country to share expertise on best educational practice. The two-year programme has involved staff from Coleg y Cymoedd travelling to colleges in Hue, Ho Chi Minh and the country’s capital Hanoi.
It also saw 10 delegates from each of the Vietnamese colleges visit the Nantgarw campus in November.
Matthew Tucker, director of business services at Coleg y Cymoedd, said: “This project has been a huge success and we have seen some fantastic improvements to the resources and quality of teaching within all of the colleges we have linked up with.
“It’s been great to pass on our teaching practices and quality processes, and seeing the differences these have made has been extremely rewarding.”
The partnerships were formed through the British Council’s Foundation Project Vietnam scheme, a collaboration between the British Council, Coleg y Cymoedd and Vietnam’s General Department of Vocational Training designed to enrich learning experiences in both Vietnam and Wales.
According to staff, meeting with their Vietnamese counterparts, including principals and lecturers, allowed the Welsh experts opportunities to learn about the existing practices and procedures at the colleges, and gain feedback from students.
That information enabled the Coleg y Cymoedd team to identify areas for improvement within each of the partner colleges and create plans to tackle key issues.
Throughout the project, the team worked closely with the Vietnamese representatives, delivering face-to-face training to develop their skills, as well as sharing tips, tools and resources to support them in implementing changes to improve the quality of education provided within their colleges.
The project also saw 10 delegates from each of the Vietnamese colleges visit the UK for a week of training at Coleg y Cymoedd’s Nantgarw campus, to take part in job shadowing and lesson observations, as well as learn about new teaching and assessment methods and strategies.
The exchanges allowed the delegation to see firsthand how Coleg y Cymoedd takes on learners’ feedback in order to continuously improve the college’s facilities, teaching and learning provisions.
Mr Tucker continued: “The key aim behind this project was to support the colleges to listen to their learners and improve their provisions based on their feedback, as we do here at Coleg y Cymoedd. Having visited the colleges, we can safely say that the scheme has been effective in doing just that, with each of the institutions having implemented new practices and training strategies that they have learnt from us.
“It’s been a pleasure to be involved in making a difference to the level of education provided over the other side of the globe.”