COLLEGE OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC
CNA part of Canada-Vietnam education project

Human resource and capital development is one of the most important tasks set by the Vietnamese government. Training a high-quality workforce to compete with the world is considered a fundamental solution to realize human resource development with the purpose of meeting socio-economic development goals, such as national solutions and programs set by the government.

Khoi Nguyen Investment Group Joint Stock Company (abbreviated by the English name KNI) and its member company, First Steps, have developed an education project to invest in a vocational college consortium with the quality and qualifications of Canada, based on cooperation with leading Canadian vocational colleges; under the active support of investment policies of the Lao Cai provincial government to attract investors.

This education consortium is coined The Canada-Vietnam International College (CVIC). The school will focus on training a highly skilled workforce according to Canadian standards, with comprehensive cooperation on programs, qualifications as well as a professional consortium of colleges in Canada. The Canada-Vietnam International College aims to provide a source of skilled labour not only meeting the demands in the Vietnamese labour market, but also the labour market in Canada and other countries.

Four colleges are participating in the Canada-Vietnam International College (CVIC) founding partners group, including: College of the North Atlantic (CNA), Georgian College, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and Fanshawe College. Khoi Nguyen Investment Group Joint Stock Company (KNI) and its member company, First Steps, have developed an education project to invest in a vocational college consortium.

CVIC graduates would hold an international qualification and would be recognized by the partner colleges in Canada. In the first phase, there will be four colleges participating in CVIC's founding partners group, including: College of the North Atlantic (CNA), Georgian College, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and Fanshawe College. The founding colleges are currently involved in exploratory discussions about how the initiative can and ought to be fully operationalized and funded.

The Canada-Vietnam International College is expected to be built on an area of about 25 hectares in Lao Cai city, with a total investment of about $45 million USD and will be completed after three years from the date of land allocation.

It is known that Khoi Nguyen Investment Group Joint Stock Company has also been operating the Canadian International School System in Lao Cai city with a total investment of nearly 500 billion VND, on a total land area of about 10 hectares. This school is considered to be the grandest scale and the most impressive architectural design in Vietnam today. The founders of the Canadian International School System in Lao Cai are also the founders of the prestigious Canadian International School System in Ho Chi Minh City with a large campus cluster of nearly five hectares in Phu My Hung urban residential area for thre schools: CIS, BCIS, CVK and a campus in Binh Chanh for Albert Einstein Kindergarten to Grade 12 School.

Elizabeth Vincent, CNA's AVP International, was one of many presenters at the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Canada where an MOU was signed with four Canadian colleges.

The Canada-Vietnam International College consortium project has also received strong support from the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam and the Canadian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Canada, KNI and First Steps and the founding partner colleges in Canada committed to working together effectively to develop the relationship between Vietnam and Canada to enable to develop CVIC into a vocational training system according to Canadian quality standards and qualifications; not only in Lao Cai but will look into expanding to a number of other provinces in Vietnam in the following period.