Can Tho Vocational Training Makes Workers Better

To overcome the current situation, authorities in Can Tho City have introduced several measures, such as job creation, poverty reduction, training programmes for rural populations, and upgrading and expansion of vocational schools. In 2004, Can Tho created 28,227 new jobs for local, fulfilling 112.9 per cent of the annual target, reducing its unemployment rate to less than 5 per cent and raising the ratio of rural workers to 80 per cent in 2004 from just 43 per cent in 1976. The city’s authorities also create jobs for locals by sending them to work abroad. Before 2004, the city sent some 300 workers abroad each year but the number has increased dramatically in 2005.

 

In the past few years, the Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs has cooperated with relevant bodies to reshuffle education and training centres in order to heighten the quality of workers for the city. As of late 2004, Can Tho City had 29 State-funded vocational schools and centres capable of training 33,000 people a year, mainly in the fields of electricity, garment and textile industry, engineering, construction and agriculture. In the coming years, these schools will operate in cooperation with schools in Ho Chi Minh City to open courses for engineers. They will improve training facilities and syllabuses to meet the working demand of the city and they will also join hands with enterprises to train workers for these enterprises.

 

Apart from developing vocational schools, Can Tho City has also opened free training courses for unemployed workers in rural areas and returned soldiers from 2000 to 2005 and has gained remarkable successes. Main training contents include electrical engineering, mechanics, aquaculture, husbandry, veterinary science and traditional crafts. The Can Tho Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs has also joined forces with such social organisations as the association of women, farmers and veterans to supervise and manage trainees during their training courses. After training courses, many trainees can do their own business and create jobs for an additional 10-15 others. Thanks to solid relations with enterprises, a lot of trainees can work during their courses by delivering enterprises’ products to households and sales agents. As a result, employed graduates increased to 84 per cent in 2004 from just 64 per cent in 2001. These achievements made Can Tho City an outstanding job-creating location for rural workers in 2002. In the 2006-2010 period, this training programme will be further employed to raise levels of workers in suburban areas, giving them the opportunity to work for local enterprises and companies.

 

Under the city government’s direction of training more workers for industrial and service sectors, the Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed a lot of detailed measures and joined hands with relevant agencies to disentangle difficulties to accomplish their assigned tasks. Under the plan, the department will set up a vocational centre in the inner city and two vocational centres in Co Do and Thot Not districts, paving the way for the establishment of larger ones in the time to come. In addition, the department will also ask the Can Tho School of Medicine, Can Tho University and Can Tho College to expand high-tech schools. According to Mr. Pham Quoc Trieu, director of the Can Tho Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, training rural workers is just a buffering step, not a core objectives. An industrial city cannot employ unskilled rural workers but seeks well-trained ones. In the time to come, the department will cooperate with the education and training sector to open training courses for workers who just finished grade 9 and grade 12.