CIRCULAR

DEFINING ON THE CONDITIONS AND DOSSIERS, PROCESS TO OPEN THE TRAINING MAJORS AND SUSPENSION OF ENROLLMENT AND REVOCATION OF DECISION ON OPENING THE TRAINING MAJORS OF PROFESSIONAL INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

Pursuant to the Education Law dated June 14, 2005; the Law amending and supplementing some Articles of the Education Law dated November 25, 2009;

Pursuant to the Decree No.178/2007/ND-CP dated December 03, 2007 of the Government regulating functions, duties, powers and organizational structure of the ministries, ministerial-level agencies;

Pursuant to the Decree No.32/2008/ND-CP dated March 19, 2008 of the Government regulating functions, duties, powers and organizational structure of Ministry of Education and Training;

Pursuant to the Decree No.75/2006/ND-CP dated August 02, 2006 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of some Articles of the Education Law; the Decree No.31/2011/ND-CP dated May 11, 2011 by the Government on amending and supplementing some Articles of Decree No.75/2006/ND-CP;

Pursuant to the Decree No.115/2010/ND-CP dated December 24, 2010 of the Government defining responsibilities for state management on education;

Pursuant to the Decision No.43/2008/QD-BGDDT dated July 29, 2008 of the Minister of Education and Training issuing Regulations of vocational schools;

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Minister of Education and Training specifies the conditions and dossiers, process to open the training majors and suspension of enrollment and revocation of decision on opening the training majors of professional intermediate level, as follows:

Article 1. Scope of governing and application subjects

1. This document prescribes the conditions and dossiers, process to open the training majors and suspension of enrollment and revocation of decision to open the training majors of professional intermediate level (hereinafter referred to as professional intermediate level).

2. This document applies to the vocational schools, institutions of education and training of professional intermediate level (hereinafter referred to as training institutions) and concerned organizations or individuals.

Article 2. Competence to decide on opening the training majors of professional intermediate level

1. The ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies decide on opening the training majors of professional intermediate level for the training institutions under ministries, ministerial-level agencies, the training institutions under the enterprises to be conducted some rights and performed some obligations of owners for such enterprises by ministries, ministerial-level agencies as prescribed by law.

2. Directors of Departments of Education and Training decide on opening the training majors of professional intermediate level for the training institutions under the respective provinces.

3. Minister of Education and Training decide on opening the training majors of professional intermediate level for the training institutions under the political - social organizations, political schools, military schools of provinces and other educational establishments having training of professional intermediate level.

Article 3. Conditions for opening training majors of professional intermediate level

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1. Having full legal status and satisfying the existing regulations on training of professional intermediate level.

2. The training major registered for opening must be consistent with requirements on function, tasks, planning, and development strategy of the school, planning for development of local manpower and of its branch. Ensuring that there is no overlap the training majors between the schools in the same area.

3. The training major registered for opening must be in the list of training majors issued by the Ministry of Education and Training.

In case the training major registered for opening has not been named in the list of training majors, the training institutions must present the scientific arguments of this training major, needs for training local labor and of its branch, training experience of some countries in the world (if any) and must be approved in writing by the Ministry of Education and Training for this training major before sending documents to the competent agency deciding on opening it.

4. Having teachers team to implement training program, specifically:

a) Teachers participating in teaching must ensure adequate standards as prescribed by law on education and the regulations of vocational school; have qualifications and actual experience in accordance with the requirements of credit that they will teach in the training program;

b) Having the team of tenured lecturers undertaking to teach at least 70% of the volume of training programs corresponding to each block of knowledge and skill of the major registered for opening, in which there are at least three teachers with university grade or more appropriate to the major registered for opening.

5. Having material facilities and equipment guaranteed to meet requirements of the major registered for opening, namely:

a) Having adequate classrooms meeting training scale as specified. The classrooms must be ensured lighting, ventilation, hygiene safety, fire, and basic equipment for teaching and learning;

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For the practice establishments outside the schools, the training institutions must be approved in writing by the practice establishments outside the schools;

c) Library must have room for looking up information and other equipment to serve the borrowing, reference of documents; have enough textbooks, learning-teaching materials, and reference books for students and teachers at request of the major registered for opening;

d) The college's website must be updated regularly, announced commitment of education quality, education quality in reality, the conditions to ensure the quality and financial revenues and expenditures

6. Having training program and detailed program of credits in the training program to meet the following requirements:

a) The program must ensure that the current provisions on professional intermediate level training, in which the plan to implement training program must be shown allocation of time for the activities, the credits and learning duration consistent with trainees, ensuring learning load spread out throughout the course. Training programs are set up in accordance with provisions in Form 1 of Appendix II attached to this Circular.

b) Detailed program of each credit is set up as prescribed in Form 2 of Appendix II, in which:

- Name of the credit, credit duration, the time to implement the credit program should be consistent with the training program;

- The objective of the credit must be determined according to the output standard of the credit (requirement on knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors that students must meet after the end of credit) and consistent with the objective of training program;

- Detailed program of credit must specify prerequisites (if any) to require students to meet before studying the credit;

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- Assessment of learning outcomes must be consistent with current regulations on training professional intermediate level and objectives, the nature of the credit;

- The detailed contents of the credit contain the knowledge, specific skill of the credit which are specified in sections, chapters or lessons and the main contents for each chapter, the lesson. These contents must meet the credit’s objective, consistent with the duration of credit and learning-teaching load of teachers and students. The contents of general credits must be consistent with the content that the Ministry of Education and Training was provided for;

- For the practices in the laboratory or in the establishments outside school, it must be clearly stated objective, content of practice, plan, time, conditions for ensuring quality of practices and other requirements for students during the practice.

- Teaching equipment must be stated clearly the name, quantity of equipment, facilities, main materials for the teaching and learning (theory and practice);

- Requirements for school teachers must be clearly stated the requirements for professional qualifications, teaching qualifications, teaching experience, actual professional experience;

- Reference source used for credit must be clearly stated the document name, author, year of publication, publisher. If the reference source is taken from internet, it must be clearly stated address to access the Website. References must be updated materials associated with the content of the credit (may be in Vietnamese or foreign language).

c) Council building the programs includes the lecturers, teachers with experience in the related contents in the program and professional intermediate level teaching experience; the educational managers; experts on building the program, representatives of the units using employees of the training major. Total number of teachers and lecturers of the training institutions to join the Council does not exceed two thirds of the total members of the Council;

d) Training program and detailed program of credits must be passed by the appraisal Council of training program of the training institutions (for the training institutions that are allowed to self-evaluate training programs) or of a training institution appointed by the authorities that are competent to decide on opening the majors (for the training institutions that are not allowed to self- evaluate training programs) or have the written approval of the Ministry of Education and Training ( for special cases prescribed at Point a, Clause 3, Article 4).

7. Having the management apparatus and organizational regulations and activities of the school to ensure implementation of training majors.

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9. For some training majors of the group of special majors (Health; Sport And Fitness; Art; Teacher Training), in addition to the conditions of opening the majors as specified in this document, the training institutions must also meet the conditions prescribed by the Ministry, governing branch of this area.

Article 4. Appraisal of training programs

1. The training institutions are allowed to evaluate the training program if they meet the following conditions:

a) Having been established and organized to train for more than 3 years;

b) Having at least 5 tenured teachers with university degrees or higher in accordance with the major registered for opening, in which there is at least one teacher with master degree or higher;

c) The training major registered for opening must be in the list of training majors issued by the Ministry of Education and Training;

d) Having no violation in the process of self-evaluation of previous training programs or evaluation of training programs for other training institutions.

2. The training institutions that are decided on opening training majors by the competent authorities shall appoint the evaluation of training programs of professional intermediate level for other training institutions if they meet the following conditions:

a) Having at least 5 tenured teachers with university degrees or higher in accordance with the major registered for opening, in which there is at least one teacher with master degree or higher;

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c) Having no violation in the process of self-evaluation of training programs or evaluation of training programs for other training institutions;

d) Having no violation of current regulations on enrollment, organization, and management of training and other relevant provisions of law for a period of three consecutive years to the date of being appointed the evaluation of training program of the professional intermediate level for the training institutions with the major registered for opening.

3. Process for evaluation of training programs

a) Before filing dossiers to register for opening a training major, the training institutions send an official dispatch to the agencies that are competent to decide on opening the major to propose for self-assessment of training program (Appendix VII) or request the competent agencies to appoint an reputed training institution for appraising the training program. Within a period of not more than 5 working days after receiving the written request of the training institutions on permitting them to self-evaluate training program or appointing an reputed training institution to evaluate, the agencies that are competent to decide on opening the major must send written reply.

Where the majors need to be appraised are not in the list of branches issued by the Ministry of Education and Training or within the jurisdiction of the ministries, branches and localities, there is no any training institution that is eligible in accordance with provisions for evaluation of the training programs of the major registered for opening and other special cases, the competent agency deciding on opening the major sends a written request to the Ministry of Education and Training for single settlement.

b) After receiving the opinions of the competent authorities for permission to self-evaluate training program or appointing a reputed training institution to evaluate training programs, the training institutions conduct to perform the following tasks:

- If the training institutions are allowed to self-organize the evaluation of training programs, heads of the training institutions make the decisions to establish the Appraisal Council and organize the appraisal Council meetings to appraise the training programs of their institutions.

- If the training institutions are not allowed to self-organize the evaluation of training programs, after receiving the opinions of the competent authorities decided on opening the major, the training institutions send the training programs to the training institutions appointed by the competent agency for the appraisal. Heads of training institutions that were appointed to appraise shall make decisions on establishment of appraisal council and organize the appraisal Council meetings on the training programs for a period of not more than 20 working days from the date the competent agencies decided on opening the majors send official dispatches to appoint the training institutions to conduct the function of evaluation and have received training programs of the training institutions requesting for evaluation.

- Composition of the appraisal council, content, and method to conduct the meetings of the appraisal Council shall comply with regulations on evaluation of current vocational education programs. After evaluation of training programs has been completed, heads of the training institutions doing appraisal confirm in the minutes of the appraisal Council (Appendix VI) and in the training programs.

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4. Funding to evaluate training programs shall be paid by training institutions registered for opening the training majors in accordance with current regulations.

Article 5. Dossier of registration for opening training major of professional intermediate level

Dossier of registration for opening training major shall be made by the training institution, to be bound and sealed, including:

1. Statement of registration for opening training major (Appendix I).

2. Scheme of registration for opening training major, including the following contents:

a) Training and detailed programs of credits;

b) Capacity of training institution:

- List of teachers (Form 1, Appendix III);

- List of material facilities (Form 2, Appendix III);

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- Decision to establish a council of building training program;

- Decision to establish an appraisal council attached to evaluation minute of training program of the appraisal council by the training institution established by the training institution (for training institutions allowed to evaluate training programs) or of the training institutions appointed by the competent authorities decided to open the majors (for the training institutions that are not allowed to self-evaluate training programs), or other documents on the evaluation of training programs (for single case).

- Curriculum Vitae of teachers of the major registered for opening (Appendix IV);

- Valid copies of professional qualifications together with the signatures of the qualifications’ owners, teaching certificates of teachers (except teachers who have graduated from education university);

- Evidence for the conditions specified at Point b, Clause 5, Article 3 of this document;

- The minute confirming the conditions on the team of teachers, material facilities, equipment for training together with a written opinion of the Department of Education and Training, where the school is based on needs of human resource in the area (except for training institutions directly under the province).

Article 6. The process for opening the training major of professional intermediate level

1. For the training institutions directly under the provinces

a) Training institution makes 05 sets of dossiers as prescribed in Article 5 of this document and sends to the Department of Education and Training:

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- If dossier of registration is inadequate or does not satisfy the conditions for opening the major as prescribed, the Department of Education and Training shall send written notification on the status of the dossier and recommends the training institutions to continue to prepare the conditions.

- Time limit for inspection of dossier is not more than 5 working days after receipt of dossier of registration for opening the major of the training institution.

b) Actual inspection at the training institutions

- Members of an inspection team compose of representative of the leaders of Department of Education and Training (Team Leader), 01 representative of the unit directly managing professional intermediate level of the Department (Secretary), 01 representative of the Office of Testing and quality assessment, 01 representative of the relevant local department, branch, and 01 expert having knowledge and experience in training.

- Inspection contents include: The necessity of major opening; compare the contents of the declaration in dossier with the current regulations and actual conditions such as the plan to assign teachers for teaching during the course, the payroll of school, insurance books of teachers, material facilities, equipment in reality, the data of the training institutions which were publicized on the website and other materials of evidence.

- Inspection minute (Form 1, Appendix V) must be recorded fully, honestly opinions of the members to be present during the inspection of actual conditions, the ability to meet the conditions for permission of training, opinions of leaders of the training institutions and jointly sign into the minute. Conclusion of the minute have to ensure sufficient basis to propose the competent agencies for decision: To unify the approval for opening the major; not allowing opening the major and need to supplement the missing terms; not unifying to open the major.

- Within 20 working days from date of receipt of valid dossiers, the agencies deciding on opening the major must complete the inspection at the school.

c) The decision to allow opening the training majors

If the training institutions may ensure the conditions of opening the major in accordance with provisions, the Director of Education and Training shall sign the decision on approval of opening the training programs within 10 working days from the date of inspection results in reality.

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- If the training institutions have ensured conditions and met the requirements as specified, within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the report of the training institutions, the competent authorities shall decide whether to allow opening the training majors;

- If after 30 days from the date of actual inspection results, the training institutions have not met the conditions for opening the majors as prescribed, it shall be after 3 months from the date of the test results, the training institutions are allowed to reapply a new registration dossier for opening the majors and must carry out according to the processes in accordance with provisions in Clause 1 of this Article.

d) The decision to allow opening the major together with completed dossier of registration for opening the major and inspection minute of conditions must be sent to the Ministry of Education and Training by the agency deciding on opening the major for monitoring and management within 5 working days from the date of signing.

2. For the training institutions directly under ministries, branches and other training institutions

a) Before filing dossier to the agency deciding on opening the major, the training institution makes dossier as prescribed in Article 5 and sends 02 sets to the Department of Education and Training where its head office is located together with written request for inspection and verification of conditions of teachers, material facilities, and equipment for training.

b) Inspection and verification of conditions for opening the major

- The Department of Education and Training where the head office is located shall preside over and coordinate with the concerned units to organize the inspection. The composition of the inspection team includes leader’s representative of the Department of Education and Training (Team Leader), 01 representative of the unit directly managing professional intermediate level of the Department (Secretary), 01 representative of the Office of Testing and quality assessment, 01 representative of the relevant local department, branch, and 01 expert having knowledge and experience in training major.

- The inspection team carries out the inspection and cross-check of the content declared in dossier compared with practical conditions such as payroll of the school, insurance books of teachers, material facilities, actual equipment and other material evidence and establish inspection minute (Form 2, Appendix V).

- The deadline for completing the inspection shall not exceed 20 working days from the date of receiving valid dossier.

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c) The training institutions send 02 sets of dossiers of registration for opening the majors together with the minutes of the practical inspection and comments in writing on human resource needs in the area of the Department of Education and Training to the competent authorities deciding on opening the majors:

- If the dossiers of registration for opening the majors of the training institutions ensure conditions and meet requirements as specified, within 10 working days from the date of receiving valid dossiers, the competent authority shall issue decision on allowing opening the training majors of professional intermediate level.

- If the dossiers of registration for opening the majors of the training institutions ensure conditions as specified, but there are still some contents required for completion, within 5 working days from the date of receipt of dossiers, the agencies deciding on opening the training majors send written notice to the training institutions on the contents required for completion. Within 10 working days from the date of receipt of completed dossiers of the training institutions, if the training institutions meet the conditions as prescribed, the competent agencies shall issue the decision to open the training majors of professional intermediate level.

- If the dossiers of registration for opening the majors of the training institutions have not ensured conditions as specified, within 5 working days from the date of receipt of dossiers, the agencies deciding on opening the training majors send written notice on status of dossiers and suggest the training institutions continuing to prepare conditions. In this case, it must be after 3 months from the date the agencies deciding on opening the major send written notice, the training institutions are allowed to re-submit their application for opening the majors and must carry out the processes in accordance with provisions in Clause 2 of this Article.

d) The decision to allow opening the major together with completed dossier of registration for opening the major and inspection minute of conditions must be sent to the Ministry of Education and Training by the agency deciding on opening the major for monitoring and management within 5 working days from the date of signing (unless the training institutions decided on opening the training major by the Ministry of Education and Training).

Article 7. Suspension of enrollment of training major of professional intermediate level

1. Training institutions shall be suspended enrollment of training major in the following cases:

a) Failing to meet one of the conditions to allow opening training major of professional intermediate level specified in Article 3 of this document;

b) Organizing training outside the places permitted training;

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d) Person who allows opening the major is not in compliance with his/her competence;

đ) Violating the provisions of education law sanctioned for administrative violations in the level of suspension;

e) Other cases prescribed by law.

2. The agencies that are competent to decide on opening the training majors shall be competent to decide on suspension.

3. The decision to suspend enrollment of training majors must be clearly identified the reasons for suspension of enrollment, clearly define the suspension period, measures to ensure the interests of students and teachers. The decision to suspend enrollment of training majors should be publicized in the mass media.

4. Order and procedures for suspending enrollment or allowing re-enrollment:

a) When detecting the training institutions to violate one of the cases specified in Clause 1 of this Article, the agency deciding on opening the major shall organize the inspection to assess the seriousness of the violation;

b) Based on the seriousness of the violation of training institutions, the agency deciding on opening the major shall issue decision on suspension of enrollment of training majors;

c) After the period of suspension of enrollment, if the causes leading to the suspension of enrollment are overcome and the training institutions send dossiers requesting for re-enrollment, the competent agency deciding on suspending the enrollment shall issue decision on allowing the training institutions to be re-enrolled.

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5. The decisions to suspend enrollment of training major, allow enrollment must be sent to the Ministry of Education and Training for monitoring within a period of not more than 5 working days from the signing date (unless the training institutions decided on opening the training major by the Ministry of Education and Training).

Article 8. Revocation of decision on opening training majors of professional intermediate level

1. Training institutions are revoked the decisions on opening training majors in the following cases:

a) Having any offense, evidence of fraud in the declaration of conditions of ensuring quality of material facilities, team of teachers, managers or copying the entire curriculum of another training institution;

b) Seriously violating the regulations on management, organization, training at the training institutions;

c) Expiry of enrollment suspension of training majors but the cause of enrollment suspension may not be overcome;

d) Violating the provisions of education law sanctioned for administrative violations at the level of revocation;

đ) Other cases prescribed by law.

2. The competent agency deciding on opening training majors shall be competent to revoke this decision.

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4. Order and procedures for revocation of the decision on open training major

a) When the training institutions violate one of the cases specified in Clause 1 of this Article, the agency deciding on opening training major shall organize to evaluate the seriousness of the violation;

b) Based on the seriousness of the violation, the agency deciding on opening training major shall make decision on revocation of decision on opening training major.

5. Where the training institutions violated the regulations on opening training majors that remain the enrollment for training, the Ministry of Education and Training will request in writing the agency deciding on opening training major to suspend enrollment or revoke the decision on opening training major depending on the seriousness of the violation. And, within 02 years from the date the Ministry of Education and Training sends official dispatch to the agency deciding on opening training major on the violation, the agency deciding on opening training major is only allowed making decision on opening new training majors after having written agreement of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Article 9. Responsibilities of the Ministry of Education and Training

Department of Professional Education shall preside over; coordinate with the Department of Planning - Finance and concerned units to assist the Minister in:

1. Directing, guiding, inspecting, and monitoring the implementation of regulations on opening training major, enrollment suspension, and revocation of decisions on opening training majors of professional intermediate level.

2. Organizing to review dossiers and the conditions of registration for opening training majors of professional intermediate level for the training institutions decided on opening the major by the Ministry of Education and Training.

3. Every year, synthesizing to report to the Minister on the status of opening training major at the school under the ministries, branches, localities and other training institutions.

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1. To preside over and coordinate with other concerned units to review dossiers and the conditions of opening training major of professional intermediate level for training institutions decided on opening the major in accordance with the provisions of this document by ministries, ministerial-level agencies.

2. To monitor the training implementation process of the training institutions for the majors registered for opening.

3. To report the Ministry of Education and Training as the training institutions have the changes on subjects of enrollment, training time, and place of enrollment and other changes.

4. To send the decisions on permission of opening training majors of professional intermediate level, enrollment suspension of training majors, revocation of decision on opening training majors to the Departments of Education and Training in the localities where the schools are located their head offices for monitoring.

5. To publicize the decisions on permission of opening training majors of professional intermediate level, enrollment suspension of training majors, revocation of decision on opening training majors on the Website of the unit.

6. To review and inspect the conditions of ensuring training quality for the training majors of the subordinate training institutions that were permitted training enrollment before this Circular takes effect. To issue the decision to suspend enrollment for the training majors that it is no longer satisfaction of the conditions of ensuring the prescribed quality.

Article 11. Responsibilities of the Departments of Education and Training

1. To preside over and coordinate with other concerned units to review dossiers and the conditions of registration for opening training major of professional intermediate level for training institutions decided in accordance with the provisions of this document by the Departments.

2. To monitor the training implementation process of the training institutions for the majors registered for opening.

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4. To publicize the decisions on permission of opening training majors of professional intermediate level, enrollment suspension of training majors, revocation of decision on opening training majors, inspection team list attached to the minutes of inspection of the conditions of opening the majors (of all the training institutions in the area) on the Website of the unit.

5. To inspect and confirm the actual conditions of teachers, material facilities, equipment for training for the training institutions that are not under the jurisdiction of decision on opening the majors of the Department of Education and Training when the training institutions propose.

6. Directors of Departments of Education and Training are responsible for the observance of regulations, the truthfulness, and accuracy of actual inspection results of the training institutions.

7. To review and inspect the conditions of ensuring training quality for the training majors of the subordinate training institutions that were permitted training enrollment before this Circular takes effect. To issue the decision to suspend enrollment for the training majors that it is no longer satisfaction of the conditions of ensuring the prescribed quality.

Article 12. Responsibility and competence of the training institutions to be appointed the appraisal of training programs

1. To evaluate the training programs of training institutions under the provisions of this document and the current regulations on the evaluation of educational programs of professional intermediate level when being appointed by the competent agencies deciding on opening the majors.

2. To be entitled to review the dossiers and documents relating to the formation of training programs and to request the training institutions to provide concerned documents and information.

3. To evaluate objectively and truthfully; to be responsible for the results of evaluation of training programs.

4. To submit to the examination, inspection and supervision by the competent agencies deciding on opening the majors and functional agencies which are competence on evaluation results of training programs.

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Article 13. Responsibilities of the training institutions

1. To comply with regulations on conditions, dossiers, process of registration for opening training majors of professional intermediate level.

2. To ensure the truthfulness and accuracy of registration dossiers for opening training majors.

3. To be responsible for supplying sufficient information, documents and evidence as the inspection team or appraisal Council requests.

4. To publicize the list of teachers, material facilities of the majors registered for opening on the Website of the unit prior to the date filing dossier of registration for opening the majors.

5. To strictly conduct training program’s content and the conditions of ensuring the training quality as agreed in the registration documents for opening the training majors after being approved for opening the majors and must be adapted for the following courses to ensure the current provisions on training of professional intermediate level.

6. During the training, if wishing for adding more objects for enrollment (change of training time) or enrollment and training at the new branch (new school branch), the training institutions must adjust training programs, prepare the conditions to ensure the output of training majors and report to competent agencies deciding on opening the major. The training institutions are only allowed to enroll, train for these cases as not violating the current provisions on training of professional intermediate level at the time of registration for additional adjustments and were approved in writing by competent agencies.

7. For the training majors that the training institutions have not enrolled for 5 consecutive years, before re-enrollment is conducted, the training institutions must report in writing to the competent authorities deciding on opening the majors on the conditions of ensuring quality for these training majors.

Article 14. Effect

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The previous regulations contrary to the provisions of this Circular are hereby annulled.

Article 15. Organization of implementation

Chief Office of the Ministry, Director of Professional Education, heads of concerned units under the Ministry of Education and Training, heads of ministries and branches having professional secondary schools and other units training professional intermediate level, directors of departments of education and training, the principals of professional secondary schools, heads of other units training professional intermediate level shall implement this Circular./.

FOR MINISTER
DEPUTY MINISTER




Bui Van Ga