Attending the meeting were representatives of International Cooperation Department, Center of Overseas Labour and the relevant agencies.

From 2013, Vietnam and Germany have cooperated to send Vietnamese nurses to work at  facilities for patients and geriatrics. During the pilot phase from 2013 to 2014, Vietnam has brought 200 nurses to study and work in Germany. So far, nearly 100 students from the first course passed the German National Accreditation Scheme in October 2015 and continued to work in Germany. 100 students from the second course are attending their studies at senior care facilities to prepare for the national certification exam. After the pilot phase, the Ministry of Labor-Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and the German Federal Ministry for Economics Affairs and Energy (BMWi) signed the General Agreement on Basic Principles of Student Selection for training of geriatrics health care services in Germany.

The two parties agreed that this Agreement was the basis for the implementation of co-operative projects to select candidates fairly and strictly before applying to other nursing training courses. MOLISA assigned the Center of Overseas Labor to sign an agreement with Vivantes centre in Germany to implement the formal cooperation phase. Currently, 76 trainees of the third course went to Germany in October 2016. Colab and Vivantes are training to 113 applicants for the 4th course, preparing for interviews with candidates for the 5th course.

Following the success of the program of sending Vietnamese nurses to work in care facilities for the elderly and patients of Germany, BMWi decided to expand the reception of Vietnamese nurses to work in hospitals there. Under the leadership of MOLISA, the Overseas Labor Management Department and GIZ signed an agreement to pilot the selection and training of nursing candidates to work in German hospitals in 2016 and 2017. The two sides coordinated the selection of 125 candidates for the first nursing course. They have started a 13-month German course in Hanoi from July 20. The selection for the 2nd nursing course is now being proceeded by the Overseas Labor Management Department and GIZ.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep highly appreciated the good relationship between MOLISA and BMWi of Germany, as well as of Vietnam - Germany for a long time. He evaluated that the program of sending Vietnamese nurses to work in facilities for elderly and patients is a good program, opening up the opportunity to meet the demand of human resources in nursing in Germany. Furthermore, Vietnamese nurses can learn German advanced skills in health care sector to implement in Vietnam and promote close cooperation between the two countries.

According to the Deputy Minister, Vietnamese nursing candidates studying and working in Germany are highly appreciated and welcomed. However, the program is still facing some issues such as: training quality is not as good as expected because the proportion of students who pass the B2 certificate in German did not reach the requirement. Therefore, Deputy Minister proposed that Germany should consider adjusting teaching staff to improve the quality of training for students. In addition, he also asked Germany to increase the number of admissions of Vietnamese nurses to work and study in Germany; expand the program in other fields such as information technology, engineering, health; cooperate in training a number of occupations for labors at Vietnamese vocational schools to work in Germany.

At the end of the meeting, General Director of BMWi Harald Kuhne highly appreciated and considered all comments of Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep. He promised to work with training providers to improve the curriculum as well as trainers to improve the quality of training for the candidates and expressed his wish to receive more Vietnamese nurses to work and study in Germany. BMWi also has to consider the selection of high quality hospitals and universities to receive and meet the needs of learning and working of the nurses of Vietnam.