Large investment in vocational training facilities but failure to utilize them is a waste.

(Baonghean.vn) - This is one of the problems acknowledged by the Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs at the questioning session on vocational training and job creation.

On the afternoon of July 12, the question-and-answer session with the Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs was really “hot” when it mentioned many issues related to vocational training and job creation. Among them, the issue that the delegates were most concerned about was labor export, whether or not there was a situation of “brokers” and the responsibility of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs when vocational training and job creation did not meet expectations.

Not yet assured because the cost of labor export still has many differences

This is the opinion shared by delegate Hoang Nghia Hung - Nam Dan district right at the beginning of the question and answer session. According to Mr. Hung, recently, labor export work in the province has achieved certain results. In reality, this work still has many loose issues, leading to the phenomenon of the cost of labor export being different between the same profession and the same country, which is very large. This "affects the psychology of workers".

Comrade Hoang Viet Duong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council spoke at the question and answer session. Photo: Duc Anh

In addition, there is also a situation where businesses “abandon” workers. Specifically, when consulting and introducing workers, labor supply and export units pay great attention. However, in many cases, workers are “abandoned” by businesses after they leave.

Responding to this issue, Mr. Nguyen Bang Toan - Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said: There are currently about 50 labor export consulting units in the area and each year, about 12,000 Nghe An workers are sent to work abroad. In the past, the Department has done a good job of management. However, there are still some businesses that do wrong, causing people to lose trust. The most recent case is the case of workers being cheated in Thanh Chuong and Que Phong districts. Currently, the labor sector has directly worked with businesses and proposed to refund the money to the people. If the money cannot be paid in the shortest time, it will be transferred to the law enforcement agency for handling.

Mr. Nguyen Bang Toan, Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs answered questions from delegates. Photo: Duc Anh

The Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also noted that the management of labor recruitment consulting units for labor export is quite strict. However, there are still fake units that recruit workers without permission from the authorities. From the reality in Que Phong district, he hopes that localities need to raise their vigilance and should not arbitrarily allow recruitment in the locality to avoid fraud.

Regarding whether or not there is a situation of "brokers" pushing up intermediary costs in the process of processing procedures for exporting labor, Mr. Toan said that he "just heard" and is checking and considering it.

Follow the trend so the consequences are limited

During the question and answer session, many opinions also mentioned the results of training and job creation. Most of the opinions focused on the following issues: why vocational training for high-tech workers is low, the results of vocational training for workers whose land has been recovered, and vocational training for poor households and ethnic minorities.

Coming from Quy Chau district, delegate Luc Thi Lien asked: In the past two years, Nghe An's vocational training has always exceeded targets. However, among these, how many poor and ethnic minority workers are there and how effective is the quality of vocational training?

Delegate Luc Thi Lien asked about vocational training for the poor and ethnic minorities. Photo: Duc Anh

Director of Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs answers delegate Luc Thi Lien

Delegate Dinh Thi An Phong (Nghi Loc district) also expressed concern when saying: Although the number of trained workers in Nghe An province is quite high, most of them are short-term trained, so there is a situation where students are not skilled after graduation, and training is not linked to job creation, leading to waste. How does the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs view this problem, solutions and the upcoming time?

Delegate Tran Thi Thanh Thuy (Vinh City) was concerned about the issue of labor market forecasting and hoped that the Department would have practical solutions to improve the quality of market forecasting. Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan (Do Luong District) said that one of the limitations of vocational training was due to "the assignment of targets and implementation of targets not being ensured according to plan". Based on the analysis of the data, Ms. Lan requested the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs to state "what is the basis for the department to advise on targets as well as direct the implementation and evaluate the results of the implementation of assigned targets".

Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan also requested the industry commander to answer the question because after 3 years (since the 13th Session of the 16th Provincial People's Council), 6/9 existing issues have not been resolved, for example, job creation for special subjects, workers whose land has been recovered...

Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan's opinion received the attention of the council. Photo: Duc Anh

Responding to this issue, the Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs provided many figures. Specifically, in the two years 2015 - 2016, the whole province organized vocational training for 155,196/155,000 people, exceeding the target assigned by the Provincial People's Committee. In addition, jobs were created for 75,360 workers. However, vocational training still has many limitations when the number of workers trained at college and intermediate vocational levels is still low compared to the total number of workers trained annually. The training quality and structure of some occupations of some training institutions have not met the high-tech technical requirements of enterprises and the labor market.

Director of Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs answers delegate Nguyen Thi Lan

Mr. Toan also said that every year the province has a labor market forecast because "if we don't do it, we can't forecast the market and we can't assign targets". However, the accuracy is not "close" and comes from the base: "Data must be investigated from the commune and district before going to the province and becoming the general plan of the whole province". Regarding this issue, Mr. Toan also said that, although objective, the Department strictly accepts the shortcomings "The responsibility is not to blame, but the labor sector must bear it".

Delegate Tran Thi Thanh Thuy requested to enhance responsibility in linking training with recruitment needs of businesses. Photo: Duc Anh

The Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also explained many questions related to the issue of why the vocational training for rural workers achieved low results. According to Mr. Toan, vocational training for rural workers was previously jointly managed by 6 agencies. In recent years, the budget for rural workers has been transferred to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development under the New Rural Program. In 2016 alone, due to insufficient costs, the results were not as expected.

Mr. Toan admitted that in the period of 2011 - 2015, vocational training for rural workers had many shortcomings: At that time, when implementing the 1956 project, the set target was very large and with subjective thinking, all districts opened vocational training centers. The consequence is that many centers are currently ineffective, causing waste. "At that time, we did not determine that vocational training must be training associated with the production site, the training was not built close to reality, limping, did not assess the nature of vocational training, and followed the movement, so there were many limitations. Large investment in facilities but not suitable is an inevitable waste".

Vocational training for rural workers in Quy Chau district. Photo: document

At the questioning session, Mr. Toan also said that in the past, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs had not separated the trained laborers, so there was no specific number of special laborers, laborers from ethnic minorities, and poor households, and "promised" to respond in writing after having a full summary.

My Ha