Better training to benefit rural workers A sewing class for rural workers in Tan Thinh Commune in the northern province of Bac Giang's Lang Giang District. Projects on vocational training for rural workers this year hope to see 600,000 people receive training. - VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue HA NOI (VNS)- Provinces now have to ratify their production and human resource plans before they can receive state funding for vocational training in their localities. The move was made by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to adjust its vocational training programme from this year to ensure its effectiveness. The training will not be conducted if labourers do not know where they will work and what income they will get after training, the ministry says. This year, the project targets vocational training for about 600,000 rural workers of which 70 per cent are expected to be employed. The project will invest in infrastructure and teaching aids for nearly 160 state vocational training centres. Funding would be increased the following year for localities with good outcomes, the project's management board said. More than 1 million rural workers received vocational training over the past three years and 75 per cent of them had found new jobs or continued their old jobs with higher incomes. This was according to Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ngoc Phi, who said the figures were the result of a concerted effort by the Government. In fact, Phi said, the number of trainees was not as high as expected because the project had faced lots of difficulties during the early stages. However, the number of people registering for the courses increased year by year, he said. Besides 750 existing vocational centres, localities called for more than 200 enterprises and 400 different centres, and more than 11,000 engineers, scientists and skilful workers to help with the training. More than 50 per cent of trainees increased their incomes by 10-30 per cent while the number of people escaping poverty and households with higher incomes had increased. Nearly 40,000 people living under the poverty line had jobs after the training courses. They made up nearly 40 per cent of poor workers joining the training. Some localities were successful in setting up the model of vocational training together with manufacturing schemes and the consumer market. These included Bac Giang northern province with the product of Yen The chicken, and Bac Kan northern province with vermicelli. Deputy director of the General Department of Vocational Training Nghiem Trong Quy said specialising produced high rewards. Localities joined hands with enterprises to develop specialist areas, for example co-operatives joined with tea companies to train for a career in planting and processing tea and with rubber companies in the planting of rubber trees. The programme has helped in restructuring the rural economy, the ministry said. - VNS