Lecturer Le Thi Hoai Huong (in the middle) teaches skills to the students
Learn teaching methods
Being a lecturer of Hue Tourism College (HUETC), Ms. Le Thi Hoai Huong, Dean of the Hotel and Restaurant Management Faculty, has joined many training courses in Belgium, Austria, France and Luxembourg. These courses help her not only to build a suitable curriculum, but also to provide students with the experience of culture and life in other countries - the necessary knowledge for tourism students.
"I consult the French curriculum on how to organize lectures and class sessions, then I combine them with Asian culture to create a curriculum that can flexibly serve many different lines of tourists," Ms. Hoai Huong said.
According to Ms. Hoai Huong, students in Western countries learn in the real ambience, so they can quickly make progress, while our students are passive. In order to make a difference, she has applied the method to form the activeness to the students.
"For lecturers, teaching methods are very important for students to form their activeness and skills. For lecturers in the field of tourism, overseas training trips are a chance to experience the culture and life to learn the tastes and habits of many lines of tourists to transmit to the students; since then the lectures are also rich, exciting and attractive," she emphasized.
Lecturer Nguyen Huu Chuc (3rd from right) teaches creative model for students
Five years doing master and doctoral studies in Korea, and three years working in Australia, together with many short courses in UK and Thailand have provided an opportunity for Dr. Nguyen Huu Chuc, Head of the Department of Scientific Management - International Cooperation, Hue Industrial College to learn the methods of teaching and training soft skills to students. Wholeheartedly pursuing the projects on innovating teaching methods and promoting innovative and creative startup in students, Dr. Nguyen Huu Chuc becomes one of the trainers who shared his experience to other lectures on innovating teaching methods. He is also in charge of the Center for Innovative and Creative startup of Hue Industrial College, helping students turn their ideas into products.
"From the training classes abroad, I learned many useful things, especially I could approach the teaching method of Western countries, which is learner-centered, teaching basing on reality. We have applied this model in pilot teaching," Dr. Nguyen Huu Chuc shared.
According to Dr. Nguyen Huu Chuc, students in Vietnam are weak in soft skills. Defining that soft skills are as important as profession ones, in the past two years, Hue Industrial College has applied training soft skills to students, such as the skills of presentation, teamwork, communication and job seeking, so that when the students graduate, they have comprehensive skills, but not just knowledge. This gives many students the opportunity to work and keep high positions in foreign companies.
Improve capacity
At HUETC, most of the lecturers are sent abroad for training in professional specialization, teaching method, testing capacity, business management skills and soft skills in advanced training procedures. This is an opportunity for teachers to improve their professionalism and teaching capacity and to contribute to enhancing the training quality of the college.
"Our college focuses on investing and fostering in the lecturers so that they could update and improve their teaching and occupation training capacity. Since then, providing high quality human resources for tourism enterprises,” said master Ho Thi Thuy Nga, Vice Rector of HUETC.
The training courses in Australia, Luxembourg, France, Malaysia and Thailand, etc., help the lecturers update and enrich lecture contents, know how to organize open training places such as learning outdoor, learning in enterprises, self-organizing events or simulations using information technology that the lecturers learned from advanced training programs.
Ms. Thuy Nga asserted "the lecturers who are trained abroad have contributed a lot in improving the training quality and research application of HUETC. They take part in national examination councils, in ministerial-level projects and have become national and ASEAN regional assessors of tourism and hospitality sectors."
In Hue Industrial College, the oversea training of lecturers is the human resource development strategy of the school, about 60 to 65% of the lecturers have been trained, coached and studied abroad. The college connects with many international partners, such as Japan, South Korea, USA, Taiwan, together with KOSEN, USAID-COMET projects and German standard vocational training, etc. Through these partners, a part of the funding will be provided for the programs of training, coaching, fostering and improving the capacity.
According to Dr. Cung Trong Cuong, Rector of Hue Industrial College, the effect of studying and training abroad is very important for the development of the school. The lecturers have changed their thinking and work attitude; their professional capacity has also been increased; thus, improving the quality of training.
Story and photos: Minh Hien