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

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

5. Admission decision number: 4618/QĐ-XHNV      Dated: December 29th 2016 by the Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU.

5. 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 appreciated 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 developing 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 constraint 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 surveyed youths attending vocational training courses because of the financial supports. In reality, vocational training programs only attracted more vulnerable households, rural married women. Young people exploited vocational programs as the road to freely study high school. As a result, the effectiveness of the policy system is not high as the state’s and society’s expectations.

- Regarding the causes of limitations: There are two most significant weaknesses that negatively affecting the implementation of the vocational training system. The first weakness is the unreasonable powering decentralization amongst 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 guidance 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 applicable in Hoa Binh specifically and Vietnam generally. The third model constructing 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 applying 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 publication:

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 Studies Vol 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 Humanities Vol 5 (5), pp.616-629.

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