Dong Nai removes difficulties in vocational training

Trainees are taught skills of making pottery products.

The efficiency of the implementation of Project 1956 in Dong Nai Province has been affected due to a lack of teachers, equipment and especially difficulties in accessing preferential loans for production development of rural workers after vocational training courses.

The data from the provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Society showed that after three-year implementation of the project: Vocational training for rural workers until 2020 (Project 1956), Dong Nai Province has trained over 27,300 rural workers in remote areas with the ratio of laborers finding jobs after training of 79.3 percent. Notably, the laborers trained in non-agriculture sector accounted for 50.7 percent and those in agriculture sector accounted nearly 36 percent with 9,900 people. The Department reported that whether creating jobs by themselves or working in enterprises production units, most of the rural workers knew to apply their knowledge into reality, helping to raise their incomes.

However, the provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Society also said there remained many difficulties in the vocational training activity in Dong Nai Province. The first difficult thing is the lack of teachers at the vocational training schools. For the past three years, there are only 422 teachers participating in vocational training programs in 16 vocational training centers and colleges. Therefore, the vocational training centers could not take the initiative in arrangements of teaching hours and programs. In addition, the equipment used in these schools are deficient and backward, resulting in low quality training as compared with the demand of enterprises.

 

As for the laborers, not all of them are enthusiastic in the vocational training programs as they have not been fully aware of the benefits of these training courses, and they did not want to spend their time on studying, especially those laborers who are ethnic minorities in remote regions.

 

Particularly, difficulties in accessing preferential loans for production development of rural workers after vocational training courses are making negative impacts on the efficiency of the project. Talking about this issue, leaderships of the provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Society said over the past three years, only 80 households have accessed preferential loans to develop their production activities with a total amount of about VND880 million. This figure is too modest compared with the demand, especially for the laborers trained with agricultural occupations.

 

To removes these difficulties, the Department said Dong Nai Province would promote the propaganda programs to help local people understand the benefits of these vocational training programs and participate to enjoy them. The Department will cooperate with its branches in districts and towns to offer consultancy services and enroll trainees so that the rural workers could choose suitable jobs.

The Department will also provide financial assistance to vocational training schools to purchase teaching equipment and amend teaching curriculum to suit each group of trainees. It also gives priorities to train those occupations that the province has advantages to guarantee output for laborers after training and train local laborers in remote areas or those who are ethnic minorities.

 

In term of capital sources for production development of rural workers after vocational training, Minister of Labor, Invalids and Society Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said in case laborers have already had occupations and projects to expand production and business activities, they can go to commercial banks to borrow capital. If borrowers are poor households or of policy objects, they could go to social policy banks for loans with preferential 50 percent interest rates compared with normal interest rates of other banks./.