Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs responds to Nghe An voters' petition on employment policy and human resource attraction

(Baonghean.vn)At the 8th session of the 12th National Assembly, Nghe An voters recommended that the Government pay attention to and have policies to create jobs for students after graduation. There should be preferential policies to attract high-quality human resources to work in remote, isolated and extremely disadvantaged areas. Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs responded as follows:

According to the results of the Labor and Employment Survey of the General Statistics Office in 2009, the youth force (15-29 years old) of the whole country is 22.399 million people (accounting for 26% of the population), of which the age group of 20-29 years old is 14.324 million people and the number of young people graduating from university and college accounts for 4.73% of the youth force. Vietnamese youth, especially students, with good qualities such as: dynamism, creativity, enthusiasm of youth; the spirit of eagerness to learn and the ability to quickly absorb new things, especially new fields of science and technology, are the shock force that has a decisive meaning for the development of the country.

Recognizing the important role of the youth generation in general and students in particular in the socio-economic development of the country in recent years, the Party and State have issued many policies and laws to support job creation for youth in general and students in particular.

For students, our State always cares, has financial support policies right from the time they study at universities and colleges, not allowing poor students to drop out of school. Specifically: Credit policy for students with difficult circumstances, Scholarship policy for students studying at educational institutions in the national education system.

In addition to direct support policies for students, to achieve the goal of creating jobs for workers in general, young people and students after graduation in particular, the Government has also issued many policies to support, foster knowledge, skills and provide preferential loans for starting businesses, developing production and business and exporting labor.

- Support for production development and job creation: workers in general, young people and students and graduates in particular, can borrow capital from the National Employment Fund with a maximum loan of 500 million VND/production and business project, 20 million VND/household; interest rate of 0.65%/month to develop production and business, create jobs for themselves, their families and others (Decision No. 71/2005/QD-TTg dated April 5, 2005 on the mechanism for management and operation of loan capital of the National Employment Fund. Decision No. 15/2008/QD-TTg dated January 23, 2008 of the Prime Minister amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decision No. 71/2005/QD-TTg...).

- Support for sending workers to work abroad under contracts: young people and students after graduation who want to work abroad will be supported by the State to train in skills, foreign languages, and necessary knowledge (according to Decision No. 144/2007/QD-TTg dated August 31, 2007 of the Prime Minister on the establishment, management and use of the Overseas Employment Support Fund) such as: being provided with free textbooks and materials to train in foreign languages ​​and necessary knowledge; being supported with 50% of the tuition fees for training in skills, foreign languages, and necessary knowledge according to regulations for workers who are children of war invalids, martyrs, and people with meritorious services under preferential regimes and policies, workers from poor households, and workers from ethnic minorities; Support 20% of tuition fees for advanced training and foreign language training according to regulations for workers in the initial period of implementing the pilot project to send workers to work in markets with high requirements for skills and foreign languages.

- Support labor market development: implement solutions to connect labor supply and demand such as: investing in improving the capacity of the job introduction center system; supporting the Centers to organize periodic and regular job exchanges; collecting, processing, and analyzing labor market information; building a national database on the labor market towards perfecting the labor market information system; forecasting labor supply and demand...

In particular, in order to better support vocational training and job creation for young people, including university graduates, on July 21, 2008, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 103/2008/QD-TTg approving the Project on Supporting Youth in Vocational Training and Job Creation for the 2008-2015 period, aiming to raise awareness among young people and the whole society about vocational training and career creation; increase the quantity and improve the quality of vocational training and job creation for young people; contribute to strengthening solidarity and gathering young people. To achieve these goals, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, together with relevant ministries and branches, are implementing the following projects: Communication to raise awareness among young people and society about vocational training and career creation; Consulting and supporting young people to start businesses and establish careers: ensuring that 100% of young people who want to set up businesses are provided with knowledge to start businesses; Investing in building model career guidance, vocational training and job introduction centers of the Youth Union in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Gia Lai, Thanh Hoa, Can Tho, Khanh Hoa, Phu Tho, Quang Ninh, Tien Giang, Quang Binh, striving for the rate of young people accessing information, consulting and job introduction to reach 50% by 2010 and 75% by 2015.

With the efforts of the Party, the State and social organizations, each year the country creates jobs for about 1.5-1.7 million workers, mainly young workers. Of which, through socio-economic development programs, jobs are created for about 1.2-1.3 million workers, loans for job creation from the National Employment Fund for about 250-300 thousand workers and through labor export activities for about 70-80 thousand people. The national target program on employment alone has provided loans for job creation through the channel of the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union with a loan capital of 56,814 million VND, creating jobs for thousands of young people every year.

However, the youth unemployment rate is still higher than the general unemployment rate of the labor force (the general unemployment rate in 2009 was 2.8%, the unemployment rate of youth workers was 5.3%; the unemployment rate in urban areas was 4.6%, the unemployment rate of youth workers in urban areas was over 8.8%). The reason is partly due to the low career orientation and dynamism and initiative in finding and creating jobs of young workers. The psychology of choosing a training profession is not close to reality, preferring to have a degree rather than mastering professional skills that the labor market is in demand.

Many young people after graduating still expect and rely on their families to find jobs, want to work in a state agency for stability, want to be leisurely, and are not proactive in creating their own jobs... On the other hand, preferential policies and regimes for workers in remote areas (salary, allowances...) are not really attractive to young people who have just graduated, while the conditions in these areas are too difficult and much less developed than in urban areas. Therefore, a large number of students after graduating from training schools do not return to participate in local development, causing pressure on employment in urban areas.

To solve employment for young people in general and students after graduation in particular, in the coming time, the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs and the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union together with sectors and levels will coordinate to synchronously implement the following main solutions:

- Continue to effectively implement policies to support training, job creation and labor export that have been issued. Develop and submit to the National Assembly for promulgation the Law on Employment to complete the system of legal documents on employment, unify the State's employment support policies, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of youth and youth work.

- Research, develop and perfect labor attraction policies, focusing on policies to attract highly qualified youth, policies to attract students after graduation to work in mountainous, remote and isolated areas. Continue to develop and implement programs and projects to support and encourage young people to participate in socio-economic development in disadvantaged, remote and isolated areas (programs for young intellectuals to volunteer to participate in building island areas, remote areas, etc.).

- Strengthen the connection between training institutions, vocational training institutions with enterprises, production and business establishments, linking training with social needs; establish a department (room/center) to liaise with enterprises at training institutions, vocational training institutions to regularly grasp the labor needs through training of enterprises; mobilize the participation of enterprises in developing programs, textbooks, teaching, production practice and evaluating the learning outcomes of students; conduct direct teaching and vocational training at enterprises and craft villages.

- Continue to implement policies and solutions to support labor market development: Improve the capacity of the public job center system in consulting, providing information, introducing jobs and career orientation for students; coordinate job consulting and introduction activities of the centers with training institutions, especially colleges and universities; diversify job transaction activities, mainly job exchanges with a frequency of at least once a month; improve the labor market information system; promote labor market analysis and forecasting activities... to help young people, students and graduates to access and find the best job opportunities.

- Improve the quality of training in terms of academic qualifications, technical expertise and vocational skills; link education and training with employment and market needs. Focus on training a team of entrepreneurs, managers and highly qualified workers. Along with training, it is necessary to train and improve understanding of the law, sense of discipline and industrial style for workers, while improving the physical strength and endurance of Vietnamese workers, contributing to ensuring the supply of a quality workforce in both physical and mental strength, meeting the requirements of modern industrial production.

- Coordinate the implementation of the project "Supporting youth in vocational training and job creation for the period 2008-2015" with special attention paid to activities of counseling, career guidance, job introduction, preferential credit loans for youth in vocational training, job creation and labor export; promote and improve the capacity of activities on information, counseling, and career guidance to help youth choose and decide to learn a trade, start a business, and participate in the labor market; invest in upgrading training facilities and youth job introduction centers; foster, honor, and reward young people who are good at vocational training, career establishment, and businesses that attract many young workers.

- Raising awareness of youth about vocational training and career development. The Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union coordinates with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and localities to organize propaganda and education to create changes in the awareness of youth and students about vocational training and career development; clearly define the role and responsibility of youth in building and defending the Fatherland in the period of integration and development. At the same time, propagate and educate about labor law, awareness of law compliance, and working style so that youth have sufficient conditions and proactively participate in the labor market.

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