Brockenhurst College partners with British Council and Vietnamese government to teach and promote best practice in vocational learning

Brockenhurst College has been working with the British Council and Vietnamese government to provide training to teachers of vocational courses in the Southeast Asian nation under an international skills partnership initiative.

The partnership is about incorporating elements of best teaching practice into a study toolkit that will aid teachers and help ensure learners become ready for work.

As part of the first phase, Assistant Principal Judith Munro and Transnational Education Manager Xing Li Bloodworth visited three vocational colleges in Vietnam last year to deliver an introduction to quality assurance and improvement.

Several key curriculum areas were represented by each college. Overall, these included: automotive, computing, electrical, hospitality, mechanical, pharmaceutical, refrigeration and tourism.

Judith and Xing worked with the colleges to agree outcomes for the project that were focused on delivering more interactive lessons to motivate and engage learners.

This planned project was then presented to the British Council and the Vietnamese Government’s General Directorate for Vocational Training.

The second phase of the project involved key staff from the three colleges visiting Brockenhurst College for one week of training in November 2016.

This visit gave Brockenhurst College staff the opportunity to share their approach to quality assurance and the development of teaching and learning.

Judith and Xing then returned to Vietnam in February this year to check progress and provide full training to teaching staff from all three colleges.

The training lasted four days and ended with highly-interactive micro-teach sessions, during which the trainees excelled in delivering interactive lesson content.

Feedback has been very positive from all three colleges as well as the Vietnamese government. The project will end in November 2017.

Judith Munro said: “As professional educators we believe in promoting best practice among our colleagues both at home and abroad to help improve the life-chances of learners.

“Both Xing and I enjoyed forging relationships with the colleges in Vietnam and feel proud that our learning model has been identified as a blueprint for success,” she added.