A Qualitative Multiple Case Study to Explore Perceptions on Critical Success Factors to Partnership Programs

Though institute--industry partnership (IIP) between the vocational institutes and businesses in Vietnam was expected to enlarge skilled workers for the economy, the country's IIP training programs have remained ad-hoc and underdeveloped. Analysis of success factors to form the basis for developing more comprehensive, viable, and long-term forms of IIP training programs was essential. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore the perceptions of program coordinators and business managers from three centers of the Vocational University in Hanoi (VUH) and its business network regarding the importance of four critical factors that were necessary to promote success in developing and sustaining IIP training programs in Vietnam. The critical success factors included promotional policies and mechanisms of the government, capacity and autonomy of the vocational institute, firm size and knowledge base, and common strategic vision of the vocational institute and businesses. Twenty-one participants were interviewed for this study, including 12 institutional managers from the three VUH centers and nine business managers from related businesses. The study was the first one to explore the importance of these four factors contributing to the partnership between a vocational institute and industrial businesses in Vietnam. Data analysis revealed eight themes, including encouraging further governmental involvement and perception of the government's decisive role in developing the IIP on a widespread scale, the requirement for constantly upgrading capacity and exercising more autonomy for IIP expansion, knowledge base driving the IIP decision of businesses, leadership pioneering, and setting out the framework. Altogether, the findings indicated that these four factors were perceived to contribute to the success of IIP training programs. Recommendations for practical applications include using a range of policy expectations raised in this study as the reference to set the agenda for vocational training policy discussions, giving clearer directions to the vocational institute managers in promoting IIP, and continual leadership engagement in all the stages of IIP implementation. Recommendations for future research include conducting a qualitative case study in non-state vocational institutes with a gender-equal population, testing significance of the four factors, and further filtering core promotional policies and mechanisms to be issued in the near future.