Vietnam-Germany Cooperate in Vocational Training for Farmers

According to a report of Vietnam Central Farmers’ Association, each year, its network sponsored or coordinated with others the training of some 200,000 farmers including in place training of 150,000 farmers. In the past years, Vietnam has made great efforts to train and generate jobs, especially for rural people. However, nearly 80 percent of rural workers remained untrained with over one million people of working age increased each year.

 

At the seminar, participants pointed out difficulties as well as good methods of training in different localities. Most remarks were on such difficulties as the absence of equitable size and quality in the training of farmers, lack or almost non-existence of facilities and resources for training, unqualified and insufficient teaching staff.

 

Ms Pham Thi Thu Binh, Vice President of Hai Duong Farmers Association said that training farmers generates jobs, especially in the localities transferring from agriculture to industry and service. In fact, the transfer poses new problems to both farmers and their training. Though Project 1956 sounds good, its implementation faces new problem: main workforce in rural areas is already old, while young people leave for jobs in distant places. The target group cannot successfully absorb the training and traditional farming practices remain. Moreover, the farmers can actively participate in one or two-day sessions, most of them cannot attend 2-3 months long training courses. Meanwhile, assistance to farmers remains complicated and unrealistic. For instance, the mechanism requires that the trainee is restricted to only a single job while the family engages in farming, aquaculture and animal husbandry.

 

Participants also said that most of those who remain in rural areas are old people and women, making the training difficult. Furthermore, they have no time to participate in the training courses as they are the bread earner of the family, working in the field or seeking odd jobs in urban areas during crop intervals. While the training is for the future, one, two or three years to come, it is difficult to attract the interest of farmers.  

Mr Nguyen Hong Minh, representative of Department of Vocational Training, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) said that in 2009, Prime Minister’s Decision 1956 was expected to upgrade the rural workforce, however, due to weaknesses of the training network, it failed to meet the demand of labour restructuring in rural areas. It is most alarming that the workforce in rural areas is increasingly elderly and female. 

Speaking at the seminar, BMELV Vice Minister Robert Kloos said that in spite of the differences between Vietnamese and German agricultural production, the two countries share the same difficulties and challenges in rural workforce training. The seminar will help farmers associations of the two countries to exchange experiences and solutions to dismantle constraints in rural workforce training, and carry out the agreements already signed by the Presidents of the two Farmers Associations.

 

Dr Robert Kloos also said that it is necessary to ensure farmers, especially young ones, the opportunities to develop production, feed their families and build their native land. In addition, there must be policy and mechanism to promote access to markets, as well as economic planning to ensure high efficiency, increasing the income and enthusiasm of farmers in their production.      

Mr Leu Vu Dieu, Vice President of Vietnam Farmers Association, believed that with discussions at the general debate and working groups, Farmers Associations of Vietnam and Germany will launch cooperation programmes, visits and training courses to upgrade farmers’ skill, expand agricultural markets and train the agricultural sector workforce of the two countries.

 

Mr Udo Flogart, Vice President of German Farmers Association, shared experiences in the training of German farmers. In Germany, all farm owners and leaders of agricultural cooperatives must obtain certificates and diplomas on agricultural expertise. Vocational training of farmers in Germany is not voluntary. The training is continuously updated to adapt to new developments in agricultural production and new criteria on food safety, environment and market demand. The expense for the training is largely covered by the State.

 

Dr Wilhelm Wehren, Executive Director of Haus Riswick Institute, expert on farmer training, said that, unlike in Vietnam, German agricultural production attracts many young workers, especially in the past three years, 40 percent of the young workers were not from rural areas or agricultural sector.

 

The farmer training in Germany is divided in several stages: primary, secondary and teachers. After secondary education, students study three years to become workers, and two more years to become foremen (criteria for heads of the farms). Foremen study two more years to become teachers in agricultural training. The training at the Institute consists of 14 professions such as horse raising, grape planting, milk testing, etc. The training also includes related expertise such as food safety, environment, services and market knowledge. Each week, students have only two sessions on theory and the rest is for practice at the farms. The students are paid for the training.