Rural vocational quality in focus

Rural vocational training activities should be flexible and of real value

Decision 971/QD-TTg aims at boosting rural training based on market demand while improving rural socioeconomic planning and development, and aiding local agricultural restructuring and sustainable poverty reduction. The project will focus on improving training quality and efficiency via renovating training methods.

In the 2016-2020 period, Decision 971/QD-TTg sets a target to train six million rural workers, including 1.4 million trained in agricultural vocational training, 4.1 million trained in non-agricultural vocations and 500,000 trained in rural management. At least 80 percent of trainees will be able to find a new job or improve their current work.

Decision 971/QD-TTg has been welcomed over the previous Decision 1956/QD-TTg in terms of the percentage of the trainees that are later able to find a job. Moreover, it also requires a combination of theory and practice during training with a view to make it easier for trainees to find work after taking the course.

Decision 971/QD-TTg regulates both agricultural and non-agricultural vocational training activities. Specifically, rural workers will mainly practice at farms or factories for appropriate terms and should well understand the production processes, plant and animal growth periods in each region or locality.

Rural vocational training activities should be persified based on the needs of learners and current practices. For example, training courses can vary from short to the long term as well as from certificates to diplomas as prescribed by the Vocational Education Law.

Various resources will be mobilized into rural vocational training in a flexible and compatible manner while taking into account reciprocal schemes and programs in related to enhancing scientific and technical knowledge for the public, different policies, training objects and localities, gender issues, environmental, cultural and social issues, and practical business knowledge, with the intention to improving rural vocational quality and efficiency.

According to Decision 971/QD-TTg, funding for the Vocational Training for Rural Workers until 2020 project will be sourced from the national target program and will be disbursed in phases to localities based on their rural labor scales and vocational needs. The local funding will be adjusted in accordance to national practices in agriculture, industry and services, with a priority of localities in the northern highlands, Central Highlands, Mekong Delta and islands, having more than 100,000 ethnic people or less than 100,000 ethnic people but offering training courses for about 80 percent of rural workers.

Phuong Tam