Celebrate the success of “Vietnam Woodworking Enhancement” project

On 17 Dec. 2015, Häfele Vietnam organized a closing ceremony for the project “Vietnam Woodworking Enhancement” in Ho Chi Minh City in the presence of representatives from German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Ho Chi Minh Handicraft and Woodworking Association (HAWA) to appreciate all the progress and achievements of the partnership over the 3 years from 2012 to 2015.

This project is carried out via the private public partnership between Häfele Vietnam and GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany with an aim to improve access to knowledge & training for Vietnamese wood processing companies and qualify them to become producers of quality and design oriented furniture for export, meeting European standards.

Together with the support of Handicraft And Wood Industry Association (HAWA) and the Forest Products Association of Binh Dinh (FPA Binh Dinh), GIZ & Häfele Vietnam established two training locations in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and a mobile training unit providing trainings with three levels of expertise (basic, advanced, master), giving in-depth knowledge on the work with different materials, advanced machinery, modern fittings and design tools.

Until 12/2015…

• 71 training courses, 3,093 training days have been implemented with1,403 days of in-house trainings.
• 89 Basic certificates and 44 Advanced certificates were issued to the trainees at the 2 training centers.
• 2 Master courses in November in Hanoi and Saigon with total of 35 selected trainees from the previous Advanced Courses.
• Selected local furniture producers were supported to apply modern product development and the application of fittings.
• 2 visits to INTERZUM in 2013 and 2015 to support with latest industry knowledge. After these tours, the joined enterprises had positive changes in: knowledge awareness, attitude, skills and practices. They also applied 5S and the Europe standard fittings in their new products.

Following the success of this project, from 2016, Häfele Vietnam has planned to form a new training program for architectural hardware, furniture fittings, decorative materials and design softwares that aims at providing further knowledge to university students, carpenters, interior designers and HAWA members.