New VTOS Structure Overview

The main points concerning the new VTOS development

May-June 2014 / Chris Benke

 Points being covered
• The VTOS Development process
• VTOS Occupational areas
• VTOS Qualifications
• VTOS Structure
• VTOS Levels
• VTOS Units
• Using the standards.
 Objectives
• By the end of this session you will be able to:
– Describe the evolution of VTOS
– List the occupational areas
– List the VTOS qualifications
– Describe the VTOS structure
– Explain the VTOS levels
– Recognise the units and standards.
 Rationale for VTOS
• Provide standards for service quality & skills
enhancement for the Vietnam tourism industry
• Respond to the needs of industry for
internationally-relevant/recognized tourism
occupational standards and qualifications
• Ensure Vietnam is ready to implement MRA-TP
in 2015 by having a robust qualification system
that meets the requirements of ASEAN.

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 10 Reasons why Vietnam tourism needs VTOS
1. To set a benchmark for quality
through occupational standards
2. To raise service quality through
‘people’ quality
3. To help industry be seen by
others as a ‘professional’
profession
4. To encourage bright young
people to enter the tourism
industry
5. To help the colleges produce
better graduates suitable for
the industry
6. To ensure nationally recognised
qualifications in tourism &
hospitality
7. To enable tourism professionals to
qualify for good jobs overseas
8. To provide tourism professionals
with a pathway for their careers
9. To help HR managers select
appropriately qualified candidates
10. To provide employers with well
qualified staff to help their
business grow successfully
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 Vietnam Tourism Occupational
Standards (VTOS) System
• A system to deliver national tourism qualifications.
• Revised VTOS no longer Vietnam Tourism
Occupational ‘Skills’ Standards – but Vietnam Tourism
Occupational ‘Standards’
• Competence-based standards – Skills, Knowledge &
Understanding + Attitudes/Behaviours
• Complementary to existing college curriculum
• Essential to prepare for introduction of MRA: 2015

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 13 original disciplines

Western Food preparation Housekeeping

F&B Service

Vietnamese food
Front office Security preparation

Pastry/Bakery CRS for hotels CRS for travel

Small hotel management Travel operations Tour operations

Tour guiding
Alignment of VTOS with ASEAN & MCST

NEW VTOS DRAFT MCST** ASEAN (ACCSTP)***

1. F&B Service 1. F&B Service 1. F&B Service
2. Food Preparation 2. Food Preparation 2. Food Preparation
3. Travel & Tour 3. Travel Management 3. Travel Agency
Operations 4. Tour Guiding 4. Tour Operation
4. Tour Guiding 5. Hotel Management 5. Front Office
5. Hotel Management 6. Resort Management 6. Housekeeping
6. Front Office 7. Leisure
7. Housekeeping Management
8. On-site Guiding 8. Mice Management
9. Tourist Boat Service
10. SME Operations
11. Responsible Tourism

***partial coverage of MCST

** full coverage of ASEAN
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 2012
• ESRT follow-up to HRDT
– VTOS revised
– MoLISA regulations
– ASEAN standards
– Criteria for further accreditation and certification
How were the standards compiled?

• Agreed minimum best practice

• Includes legal, health, safety and security
• What needs to be done for a task to be
completed to standard
• International and Vietnamese experts
• Reviewed by Technical Working Groups
• Piloted with trainees.
VTOS Occupational areas
 What additional features
have you noticed?
• Units on:
– Responsible Tourism
– Core skills
– Generic
– Management elements
• Senior management level
• Meets ASEAN Competency Standards
• Requirements for Mutual Recognition
Arrangement (MRA).
 VTOS units of competence
• Industry relevant qualifications
• Spanning levels 1 – 5
• Certificates and Diplomas
• National qualifications recognised by industry
and colleges.
 VTOS Structure
• Modular format
• Units can be grouped for college curricula
• Units can be grouped for industry needs
• Units can be grouped for differing
qualifications
• Units can be grouped for different industries.
 5 Levels of Revised VTOS
VTOS Academic pathway Vocational Pathway Industry/Professional
Levels – Higher Education - TVET Pathway VTCB/VTAC
Middle Managerial/
Level 5 Associate Degree Advanced Diploma
Professional Worker
Specialist
Level 4 Diploma
Worker/Supervisor
Skilled Independent
Level 3 Certificate III
Worker/Team Leader
Supervised Skilled
Level 2 Certificate II
Worker
Directly Supervised
Level 1 Certificate I
Worker
School - Grade 12 School Grade 10 Secondary School

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Sample unit layout
Sample unit layout (cont/…)
Sample unit layout – (cont/…)
Sample unit layout – (cont/…)
 VTOS Levels
• Level 1 – Unskilled jobs at entry level
• Level 2 – Semi-skilled jobs
• Level 3 – Technically skilled jobs
• Level 4 – First line manager positions
• Level 5 – Middle manager.
 Levels and qualifications

• Certificate 1

• Certificate 2

• Certificate 3

• Diploma 4

• Advanced Diploma 5
 Rationalized
• Removed repetition and duplication
• Developed core units suitable for all
jobs/levels e.g. Use English at a basic
operational level
• Developed generic units across-occupations
e.g. Process Financial Transactions (can be in
restaurant, front office, travel agency etc)
• Arranged functional units at different levels
(job specific functions/technical tasks)
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 VTOS Units
• Functional competencies
– Technical or professional
• Core competencies
– Common basic skills
• Generic competencies
– Job related shared between disciplines
• Management competencies
– Somewhat generic with some specialisations.
What are some examples?
 Example of units for Front Office Agent
Certificate Level II

FO FUNCTIONAL UNITS GENERIC UNITS CORE UNITS

FOS1 Receive & Process
Reservations
FOS4 Provide Check in &
Registration Services
FOS5 Provide Guest Services
FOS6 Provide Check out
 GES4 Process Financial
Services
FOS9 Provide Concierge
Services
GES1 Prepare For Work
GES2 Resolve Conflicts &
Complaints
Transactions
GES8 Perform Daily
 Others
Operations
GES10 Develop Guest
Relationships
COS1 Use The telephone In
The Workplace
COS2 Work Effectively With
COS3 Perform Clerical Tasks
COS4 Use English At A Basic
Operational Level
COS5 Maintain Industry
Knowledge

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 Grouping Units into Qualifications
• Clustered VTOS units into suitable qualifications
(certificates/diplomas for housekeeping, front
office, food production etc) or as full Certificates
for certification by VTCB and to support the MRA.
• Can be clustered in levels for jobs at levels 1-5 as
required for training purposes.

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 Use of VTOS standards
• Hospitality industry
– Training staff, assessing staff against standards,
registering staff with VTCB to gain certificates
• Colleges & training organisations
– Designing their curricula
– 1 semester, 1 year or 2 year courses
– VTOS lesson plans and assessment materials
available to support.
 VTCB Qualifications
• A VTOS qualification awarded by VTCB on satisfactory
assessment and verification of a candidate’s performance
• Experienced tourism professionals will be able to gain
Accreditation of Prior Learning and Experience – on a
credit accumulation basis to receive their certification.
• A qualification is a selection of units clustered together
to form a coherent group and can focus on a job role or
on a more rounded qualification such as a 1 or 2 year
diploma from a college
• 62 proposed new VTCB qualifications at 5 levels across 6
major tourism areas

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 Recognition of Prior Experience/
Learning System
 Internationally, recognition and
accreditation of prior learning,
Accrediting
experience and competence is an
Skills of integral part of most advanced
Current
Workforce qualification systems.
 This enables skilled and experienced
RPEL workers from the industry to gain
System recognition of their skills and
Leading more experience and credit their
quickly to a larger
qualified tourism achievements or their prior
& hospitality learning.
workforce in
Vietnam
 The VTOS Skills Passbook System
(SPS) will be upgraded to provide
RPEL for experienced hospitality and
tourism workers

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VTOS Training Resources

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 Trainer and trainee guides
for college & industry use
• VTOS training materials will be developed for
trainers/lectures to run training sessions or for
college lecturers to teach courses leading to
VTCB Certificates (in concert with colleges!)
• Training materials based on new VTOS plus
use of VTOS Knowledge base
– Training/teaching plans
– Trainee/student resources
– Assessment materials

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 Group Analysis
• On the chart given to you highlight the
differences you perceive between the old
VTOS and the NEW VTOS standards system.
 Summary
• Old VTOS • New VTOS
– Very detailed in standards – More a subject matter
– Quite varied across guideline
disciplines – Very flexible for
– Contained marginal certification
disciplines – Affords much more
– Difficulty in certification uniformity in approach
– Not internationally – Has far wider span of levels
accepted – Avoids duplication through
– Suited more to industry generic and core modules
application – Requires more trainer
preparation input.
The future of VTOS

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Distribution of VTOS Resources for
Wide Dissemination in Vietnam

• VTOS resources will be made available online

for free downloading by trainers, trainees or
the public, or available for purchase on
DVD/USB.

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 VTOS Sustainability
• Needs a financially viable model that will enable
VTOS to continue to be utilized, updated and
expanded beyond the scope of the ESRT Project.
• This can happen through some of the following
activities:
– Marketing & distribution
– Licensing of materials
– Re-establishing trainer/assessor network
– Private/public partnerships
– Ownership by industry and colleges

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 The Future of VTOS
• Restructured and designed in a more flexible
format,
• Marketed and delivered in a more cost-
effective manner,
• A sustainable financial model will be designed
and implemented.
• Will make a significant contribution to the up-
skilling and training of human resources for the
tourism industry in Vietnam.
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Xin trân trọng cảm ơn!
Thank you!

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