Vietnam is expanding vocational training for ethnic minority communities. Now policymakers face a harder challenge: tracking whether those skills actually lead to lasting jobs and better incomes.

Employment is widespread among Vietnam’s ethnic minorities, but stable livelihoods remain elusive as workers contend with seasonal jobs, low skills and unpredictable incomes.

Trumpets lead the wedding procession as a Red Dao bride, her face hidden beneath a red veil, crosses a basin after a ritual to ward off evil before joining her groom in 12 bows to their ancestors.

Amid the fields, a small stilt house and bamboo granary rise beneath hanging wind chimes, creating the sacred setting for the Ede people’s prosperity ritual in Dak Lak.

When shaping ethnic minority policies, Vietnam should ask not only what the State can provide, but what communities already possess whose value has yet to be fully recognised.

New schools and support policies are reshaping ethnic minority education in Vietnam, with the focus shifting from basic access to learning quality and future opportunities.

National Assembly deputy Be Trung Anh says ethnic minority intellectuals should not simply “leave the mountains,” but help pave the way for mountainous communities to develop alongside the rest of the country.

From anti-colonial uprisings to the August Revolution of 1945, ethnic minority intellectuals played a significant role in Vietnam’s long struggle for independence.

On a football pitch, ethnic minority women are doing more than competing. They are showing how tradition can remain alive, confident and relevant as Vietnam integrates more deeply with the world.

After nine years, a policy designed to help Vietnam’s smallest ethnic groups stay in school is showing signs of strain as populations and socioeconomic conditions change.

Traditional skirts meet fierce football as ethnic minority women from across Vietnam compete in a colorful tournament celebrating sport, culture and community.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs is finalizing a plan to create jobs, develop services and build sustainable employment links in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for 2026-2035.

Ahead of Vu Lan, Minister Nguyen Dinh Khang met Buddhist leaders in Hanoi, praising the Sangha’s work and the festival’s deep connection to Vietnamese traditions of gratitude.

Development can improve lives, but it can also leave deep scars when communities lose their voice, identity and ties to family. International experience offers important lessons for Vietnam.

Officials have been told to resolve technical and data bottlenecks quickly as Vietnam works to integrate its ethnic affairs and religious databases with the National Data Center by Sept. 20.

A Taoist master raises his ritual staff and, one by one, breaks five miniature structures representing the five directions of hell - a centuries-old act of spiritual liberation preserved by Ho Chi Minh City’s Chinese community.

After three decades of change, the Chut people of Rao Tre are looking beyond direct assistance toward skills, jobs and livelihoods that can deliver lasting self-reliance.

Three decades ago, many Chut people could not speak Vietnamese and schooling was rare. Today, their children attend university and young workers are building new livelihoods far from home.

The Chut of Rao Tre have transformed their lives over three decades, but memories of forest births, infant deaths and marriage between relatives remain painfully vivid.