A consultation meeting was organised by the Department of Continuing Education, Ministry of Education and Training, in Ho Chi Minh city on 26 November 2018. Previously, a meeting of the kind was held in Hanoi. Both meetings aimed to collect comments for revision and finalisation of the draft Assessment Criteria for Learning Units at Ministerial Organisations, Provincial and District Administrative Organisations, and the equivalent.

The Ho Chi Minh City meeting was attended by representatives from the Department of Continuing Education, Provincial People's Committees in south Vietnam, Association of Learning Promotion (central and provincial), and SEAMEO Regional Centre for Lifelong Learning.

The set of criteria is an attempt to build a comprehensive overarching group of criteria sets for assessment of different learning entities, including learning families, learning clans, learning communities, ... for the development of a learning society in Vietnam.
At the meeting, the criteria were closely reviewed and multiple justifiable opinions were given for the improvement of the draft.

In the end, Mr Phan Dang Hung, Chief of Programming Department, Vietnam Association for Learning Promotion, wrapped up the meeting by addressing major issues raised by the participants and re-emphasised the logical structure of the set of criteria. He added that learning and education is a tool for poverty elimination, thus the need for learning society.
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Concluding the meeting, Mr Nguyen Cong Hinh, Director of Department of Continuing Education, commented on the future direction of lifelong learning outcome assessment. He maintained that assessment will develop in ways that it measures what one can do, i.e. capability not what certificates one has so that it will truly tally with the concept of lifelong learning, which encompasses all forms of learning, in Vietnam.

​From 18 October to 2 November 2018, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in collaboration with Shanghai Open University and East China Normal University organised the capacity-building workshop on Development of Education Systems Oriented Towards Lifelong Learning in Shanghai. Participation in the workshop included delegations from four selected countries from Africa and Asia. The Vietnam team consists of officials and experts from the Department of Continuing Education of the Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Labour, Invalid, and Social Affairs, Hanoi Open University, Vietnam Institute of Education Science, Departments of Education and Training, and SEAMEO Regional Centre for Lifelong Learning based in Vietnam.

The goal of the workshop is to increase the capacity of the participants for the development of education systems oriented towards lifelong learning. More specifically, the objectives of the workshop are to:

• promote a sound conceptual understanding of lifelong learning in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among leading policy-makers, and advocate the integration of the lifelong learning perspective into educational policies in the participant countries;
• identify existing policies and strategies focused on establishing lifelong learning systems in the participants’ countries;
• identify and discuss approaches and mechanisms in implementing lifelong learning;
• share experiences between countries and create synergies regarding cooperation and coordinated development of lifelong learning systems;
• ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The workshop

As an outcome of the workshop, the Vietnam team prepared a recommendation on lifelong learning to submit to the Ministry of Education and Training towards the end of 2018. It consolidates the knowledge learned from the workshop and deep reflection on and review of the current context of lifelong learning in Vietnam, and fuses them into major areas of action, policies and legislation, governance, and awareness raising, to be considered by the Ministry for lifelong learning promotion.
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Considering the fact that Vietnam is in the second phase (2012-2020) of building a learning society in the country, the recommendation will contribute as one core component of implementation for the success of this project.