HCMC – Intel has pledged to continue to fund US$5-7 million for the second phase of Higher Education Engineering Alliance Program (HEEAP) which costs around US$24 million in total.
However, the Ministry of Education and Training and the General Department of Vocational Training have to pay 50% for the project, said Rick Howarth, general manager of Intel Products Vietnam, in a meeting with HCMC chairman Le Hoang Quan on Wednesday.
The program has been running since early last year to modernize university curriculums on engineering, aiming to bring about positive changes in teaching methodologies at universities and colleges in Vietnam, according to Intel.
The first phase of HEEAP was deployed by Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering of Arizona State University (ASU), under the sponsorship of US$5.5 million from the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) and Intel. There have been 78 lecturers from five universities and three colleges in Vietnam invited to attend training courses at ASU.
Jeffrey S. Goss, managing director of Ira A. Fulton School, told the Daily that Vietnamese students trained through HEEAP would be able to gain knowledge and skills like students of ASU.
Intel has also asked for support from HCMC authorities to combine this program with other training courses at Vietnam’s universities and colleges. Previously, Intel in cooperation with Portland University has awarded 52 scholarships, totaling over US$4 million, for Vietnamese students of engineering. Up to 28 graduates are working at the Intel chip assembly and test plant in Saigon Hi-Tech Park in HCMC.