Hoa Binh improves rural vocational training

Brocade weaving is in Hoa Binh’s training focus

The project has focused on providing rural workers training on demand, including aquaculture, cultivation and brocade weaving. Some local businesses involving in vocational training have also effectively benefited from the services through coupling vocational training with production activities.

In the 2010-2014 period, the province organized 627 less-than-three-month training classes for 17,957 rural workers, including 10,016 non-agricultural workers and 7,941 agricultural workers. As many as 14,011 workers were trained from the central funding of VND17.59 billion, while 3,946 others were trained from local and other funding sources, under Project 1956. Through boosting vocational training, Hoa Binh has partly solved local employment problems and made steps towards its agricultural restructuring targets.

This year, Hoa Binh estimates to see 45 percent of its total rural workforce trained, a 13 percent increase over 2011, with about 80 percent trained in non-agricultural vocations and 100 percent of the trained in agricultural vocations employed or self-employed. In addition, 188 of 191 communes in the province have met the New Rural Development criteria 12 on employment rates, an increase by 179 compared with 2011.

However, the province has faced difficulties in vocational training. A provincial report on the five-year implementation of Project 1956 shows that trainees in non-agricultural vocations have failed to regularly practice what they previously learned. In addition, local training facilities need upgrading. So the quality of local vocational training has failed to meet the requirements of the growing labor market.

In the 2016-2020 period, Hoa Binh aims to train 45,000 rural workers including 25,000 agricultural workers and 20,000 non-agricultural workers, with at least 80 percent of trainees employed, provide vocational training for 1,000 people with disabilities and vocational legal education for around 8,000 people including managers, teachers and related staff.

To improve vocational training quality in the coming period, the provincial Project 1956 Steering Committee has focuses on several solutions including adjusting vocational training programs and methods to match labor market demands, collaborating with local businesses to provide vocational training on demand, increasing regular employment rates and developing policies to encourage trainees to continue to improve their professional capabilities.

Hong Duong