The importance of the relationships between industry and academia is stressed by strategists, politicians, Vocational Education Training (VET) policy makers, and industrial planners. Industry without knowledge surely dies, and knowledge without application of that knowledge is valueless. This paper focuses on the relationships between the VET providers and industries. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is (1) to discuss the factors which enhance or constrain the strategic partnership, (2) to present the experiences of this relationship in the developing and developed countries, (3) to propose a model that links the two institutions, the VET providers and industries, in the Vietnamese context.