Vietnamese orderly apprentices will receive free Japanese language and professional training courses before working in Japan as stipulated under a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed between the two countries on August 3.

At the signing ceremony

The MoU was inked between the Department of Overseas Labour under the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Social Welfare and War Victims’ Relief Bureau on the occasion of Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep’s visit to the East Asian country.

Under the deal, the Japanese side has to ensure that Vietnamese orderly apprentices will pass the exam after their first training year.

According to Diep, the MoLISA earlier asked its Department of Overseas Labour to conduct negotiation with the Japanese Social Welfare and War Victims’ Relief Bureau on the regulations on sending and receiving Vietnamese orderlies, ensuring that they must be made in compliance with the laws of both nations.

Surveying some healthcare stations in Japan, who have high demand for orderlies, he believed that this apprentice training programme will soon prove efficiency.

Signing the MoU with Vietnam is part of Japan’s moves to concretise its new regulations on foreign workers, which was officially announced on July 29. Accordingly, orderly was added to the list of sectors that receive foreign apprentices for further training in three years in the country. 

As Japan has been experiencing a serious shortage of workers in healthcare and agriculture, the country has to extend sectors receiving foreign trainees as well as extend apprentice times from three to five years, depending on specific conditions.

This is an opportunity for Vietnam to expand labour export markets, especially in the context that both countries are enjoying sound bilateral relations.-VNA