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Advancing a Quality Independent Childcare Model in Vietnam

Project Partner: OneSky

Geographies: Vietnam

What is the core idea of the pilot?

Affordable and quality childcare is severely lacking in Vietnam. Low wage migrant workers, who cannot qualify for public kindergartens and are unable to afford quality preschools, or have children under the age of 3, for whom there are no care provisions, have no choice but to send their children to home-based independent childcare (IC) providers, which are unregulated and with highly variable safety and learning standards. Approximately 400,000 children spend up to 14 hours a day in such settings.

OneSky has developed an evidence-based curriculum and training programme for IC providers to improve the quality of care and early education, in provinces with high density of industrial zones. This is done through a Pilot Training-of-Trainers (TOT) model with Ministry of Education & Training (MOET).

Why is this innovative?

This is a systems-level solution to address the problems of childcare for vulnerable children in Vietnam’s industrial zones. OneSky’s IC programme is the only IC-specific training model that aims to create scalable systems-level change, by partnering with the government at multiple levels.

This negates the likelihood of the children’s delay in reaching their developmental potential, and minimises the risk of poorer learning outcomes when they reach school age. This is an outcome that harms not only the individual child, but their communities and the society as a whole, as it perpetuates cycles of poverty and inequity.

What will success look like?

1. Improve childcare quality of 4,000 IC providers and child development outcomes over 4 – 5 years:

- 100,000 young children across 14 provinces

- ~25% of all children ICs nationwide

2. Government adoption of the programme for all HBC providers in Vietnam

3. Scalability (with some adaption) to at least 2 other Asian countries

How will success be achieved?

OneSky will train and support government trainers at the national, provincial and district levels via a cascading TOT model delivery. The trained government trainers will deliver the 11-month IC raining programme to IC providers. In-person classroom sessions will be conducted every two weeks, with in-person and virtual visits by trainers to monitor and coach providers. OneSky will provide technical assistance, and supervision and monitoring throughout the pilot. External impact evaluation on child development outcomes and childcare quality and learning environment will be conducted via a randomised controlled trial to assess IC quality and child outcomes, which will help the team refine the project design and TOT model for further national scale up by the government.

Who is leading the project?

OneSky is an organisation founded to address the most pressing needs of vulnerable young children in Asia. Their work benefits vulnerable young children in Vietnam, Mongolia, and Hong Kong SAR, all places where economic migration is placing enormous strains on both fragile families and the public systems meant to support them.

To date, the organisation has trained 75,400 caregivers to benefit the lives of over 286,000 marginalised young children in Asia.