Dual training, where trainees study theory at school and practise real production at the factory, is the model FDI factories in Vietnam are expanding fastest to secure their own technician supply. But this model stands on two contract layers and three different responsibility groups; this article separates them so the enterprise and the school design it correctly from the start.
Legal basis
- Law on Vocational Education 124/2025/QH15: training partnerships between vocational institutions and enterprises, in which the training program includes practice and internship portions at the enterprise under a training partnership contract.
- Labour Code 45/2019/QH14, Article 61: clause 3 (amended by Law 124/2025) — an employer recruiting a person into apprenticeship or internship to work for the employer may not collect tuition fees; clause 5 — a person in apprenticeship or internship who directly performs or participates in labour is paid a wage at the rate agreed by the two parties.
- Law on Occupational Safety and Health 84/2015/QH13: apprentices, interns and trainees practising at a workplace are subjects entitled to occupational safety and health protection; the receiving unit must provide safety training and ensure safe practice conditions.
Are work-based trainees paid?
The answer depends on the nature of the factory time portion. The pure curriculum practice portion (observation, skills practice on a training line, producing no commercial product) creates no labour relationship and no mandatory wage; the trainee here keeps the status of a learner of the school. But where the trainee directly performs or participates in labour creating products or services for the enterprise, clause 5 of Article 61 of the Labour Code applies: the trainee is paid a wage at the rate agreed by the two parties. The practical boundary is determined by the actual nature of the work rather than the label in the paperwork: a trainee running a machine producing commercial goods full-time for many months must have that labour portion paid at the agreed wage, and an enterprise abusing the trainee label to use unpaid labour faces the risk of labour relationship recharacterisation with back-payment of obligations. In a standard dual training model, the partnership contract and the agreement with the trainee should state clearly: the ratio of study time to work time, the wage or allowance for the labour participation portion, insurance and accompanying entitlements, avoiding gaps where each side reads the arrangement differently when a dispute arises.
Who bears responsibility for practice accidents?
Safety responsibility rests first on the unit managing the practice site: the FDI factory. Under the Law on Occupational Safety and Health, apprentices, interns and trainees practising at a workplace must receive occupational safety and health training before practice, be equipped with protective equipment and practise only on machinery and stages fitting their trained level; the factory may not assign trainees to heavy, hazardous or dangerous work beyond the legally permitted scope for learners. When an accident occurs during practice, handling follows two tracks: the entitlement track, where a trainee participating in labour at the enterprise is considered for occupational accident entitlements under the rules applying to apprentices and interns injured during production practice, with treatment costs and compensation and allowance responsibility allocated under the accident investigation conclusion and fault levels; and the contract track, where the training partnership contract between school and enterprise pre-allocates each side responsibility for insurance, medical costs and compensation, while the contractual allocation does not remove the legal responsibility of the site-managing unit before the State and the injured person. The mandatory practical lesson is: the enterprise must place practice trainees into the safety training list and accident insurance as a special labour group from day one, and the school must inspect the safety conditions of the practice workshop before sending trainees.
Who is the dual training contract signed with?
Two contract layers run in parallel and do not substitute for each other. The first layer is the training partnership contract signed between the vocational school and the enterprise under the Law on Vocational Education: contents comprise the program and practice volume at the enterprise, trainee numbers, standards for factory mentors, safety assurance responsibility, practice result assessment mechanisms, and the school award of diplomas and certificates to completing trainees — the qualification is still awarded by the school because the trainee is a learner of the school. The second layer is the relationship between the enterprise and each trainee: if the trainee only practises under the school program, this relationship is expressed by a practice agreement or an annex to the partnership contract defining work content, time, wage for the labour participation portion and insurance; if the enterprise itself recruits a person into apprenticeship to work for it (outside a school program), the relationship becomes an apprenticeship or internship contract directly between the enterprise and the learner under Articles 61 and 62 of the Labour Code, in which the enterprise may not collect tuition fees under amended clause 3 of Article 61 and must sign a labour contract when the learner meets conditions after the apprenticeship. An FDI enterprise must identify clearly which model it is in — partnering with a school or self-training — because confusion between the two models is the most common source of trainee wage and accident disputes.
Design recommendations for dual training
Four documents form the minimum framework: a training partnership contract with detailed safety and insurance clauses; a practice program separating study hours from labour participation hours with the agreed wage; a list of factory mentors meeting skills and safety standards; and a unified accident incident handling process between school and factory. The enterprise should review the model each school year because the share of trainees shifting into real labour rises toward the final year, pulling wage and insurance duties up correspondingly.
Frequently asked questions
Are work-based trainees in a factory paid?
Where the trainee directly performs or participates in labour creating products or services for the enterprise, yes: clause 5 of Article 61 of the Labour Code provides that an apprentice or intern in this case is paid a wage at the rate agreed by the two parties. Pure curriculum practice creating no commercial product carries no mandatory wage. The boundary follows the actual nature of the work, not the paperwork label.
Who is responsible for practice accidents?
First, the factory managing the practice site: it must train on safety beforehand, equip protective gear and not assign work dangerous beyond the permitted scope for learners. An accident during production practice is handled under the occupational accident regime applying to apprentices and interns, with compensation allocated by the investigation conclusion and the partnership contract allocation, but the contract does not erase the legal responsibility of the site-managing unit.
Is the dual training contract signed with the school or the enterprise?
Both layers: a training partnership contract between the vocational school and the enterprise under the Law on Vocational Education (the school still awards the qualification), plus an agreement with each trainee on work, wage for the labour portion and insurance. If the enterprise itself recruits an apprentice outside a school program, it signs an apprenticeship contract directly with the learner under Articles 61 and 62 of the Labour Code and may not collect tuition.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council
