A tailoring education centre. Foreign investors can invest 100 per cent of the capital or enter into a joint venture with domestic investors to form a vocational education institution in Viet Nam. — Photo cpv.org.vn

When establishing a vocational education institution, foreign investors should take notice of certain conditions in order to be granted an investment certificate, which permits the establishment and certificate of registration of vocational education activities.

Foreign investors are permitted to invest 100 per cent of the capital or enter into a joint venture with domestic investors to form a vocational education institution in Viet Nam. The fulfillment of the following conditions shall result in an investment certificate being granted in the field of vocational education:

- The investment project must conform to socio-economic development and institutional network planning, as approved by the competent authority;

- There is a pre-feasibility study on the establishment of the vocational education institution;

- Condition on land: the provincial People's Committee has allocated or leased land to the foreign investor to invest in infrastructure construction for projects registered to be operational for 20 years or more in Viet Nam; or there is a contract/agreement on renting appropriate and stable schools, classrooms, workshops and auxiliary areas for at least five years for investment projects registered for operation for less than 20 years;

- The foreign investor has enough financial backing to carry out the investment project, as per the prescribed investment capital rates.

Once the investment certificate is obtained, foreign investors must prepare an establishment plan of the vocational education institution that satisfies the following requirements:

- The investment is at least VND60 million (US$2,666 ) per student for vocational education centres, and at least VND100 million ($4,444) per student for vocational training schools or vocational colleges (excluding land use expenses). In case the foreign investor does not construct new facilities, the investment rate is at least 70 per cent of that prescribed above;

- Minimum land area for construction: at least 25sq.m per student for vocational training schools or vocational colleges and 4sq.m per student for vocational education centres;

- Compulsory subjects for students who are Vietnamese citizens participating in foreign training programmes offered by vocational education institutions shall be specified by law;

- Foreigner educators teaching in Viet Nam must have at least five years' experience in the same disciplines and their foreign language level shall not be lower than the third level of the six-level framework of reference used in Viet Nam for foreign language capacity or equivalent;

- The medium of instruction and for learning of specialised subjects for foreign degrees/certificates is a foreign language; teaching in Vietnamese or via translation is not permitted;

- The number of educators obtaining postgraduate qualifications must account for no less than 15 per cent of all educators of the vocational training schools or vocational colleges;

- There should be an adequate number of tenured educators responsible for at least 60 per cent of each training programme.

In Viet Nam, vocational education institutions with foreign capital may only be brought into operation after they get a certificate of registration of vocational education activities. Head of state management of central vocational education shall specifically stipulate the conditions, competence and procedures of granting and revoking of certificates of registration for vocational education activities or certificates of registration to supplement vocational education activities.

The duration of operation prescribed for foreign-funded vocational education institutions shall not exceed 50 years, calculated from the date of establishment. If necessary, the government can decide on a longer duration, but it shall be no more than 70 years.

PLF - LAW FIRM