VietNamNet Bridge – Some 2.04 million people in rural areas will be getting job training in three years, from 2013 to 2015 under a major scheme for vocational training for the rural labor force, heard a web conference reviewing three-year implementation of the scheme held on Wednesday.

Nguyen Ngoc Phi, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, told the conference that about 600,000 rural workers were receiving job training in both agricultural and non-agricultural areas this year.

In the last three years, more than 1.04 million people in rural areas have completed their training courses. Nearly 822,500 of them have found new jobs or continued their old jobs with higher productivity and income, accounting for 78.9% of the total number of workers trained.

More than 55,200 poor people participating in the vocational training scheme have found themselves a job and thus escaped poverty.

In the period 2010-2012, over VND4.77 trillion was spent on the scheme, accounting for 18.4% of the estimated cost for the 11-year scheme that lasts until 2020.

Rural workers have been given training in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, including crop production, animal husbandry, veterinary, engineering, aquaculture and handicraft, according to a preliminary report on the vocational training scheme.

Phi of the labor ministry said the number of rural workers registering for job training had gradually increased and so had the number of people escaping poverty and earning higher income.

However, Phi acknowledged that vocational training for rural laborers still had not met the demand for industrialization and modernization in rural areas. Implementation of the scheme remains slow and asynchronous, incompatible with the characteristics of each region and economic sector.

Five localities, including Ninh Binh, Yen Bai, HCMC, Ben Tre and Ca Mau, failed to accomplish the target of 70% of the trained workers finding new jobs or doing their old jobs with higher efficiency and income.

The scheme for vocational training for the rural workforce until 2020 was approved by the Prime Minister on November 27, 2009. In the decade starting 2010, the scheme aims to provide vocational training for 6.54 million people in rural areas.

Source: SGT