Skilled workers in Nghe An have wide doors to go abroad

Open door to skilled workers

In February 2024, Phan Huy Son, a native of Thanh Tien Commune, Thanh Chuong District, was able to leave the country to the joy of his whole family. Son said: “Previously, I graduated from the Maritime College, Shipbuilding Department, but could not find a suitable job because there were very few jobs in this profession in our province. I had to struggle with seasonal jobs such as assembling electrical and electronic components at factories and companies in the province and the southern provinces. After many years, I did not have much savings, so I wanted to find an opportunity to work abroad.

After a period of searching, I finally found a place that accepted me in the profession I was trained for. Hungary is in great need of workers with the same shipbuilding profession as me. And after 3 months of language study with a total cost of more than 100 million VND, I was able to leave the country. Currently, I have a stable income of 30 - 50 million VND/month. This is the dream income for my family."

Like Phan Huy Son, Nguyen Dinh Tuan in Nghia Thai (Tan Ky) also flew to Denmark in March 2024 to work in Construction. Tuan said: "It only took me 3 months of vocational training to pass the test to meet the professional standards required by the company, and when I came to work here, I was treated very well by the boss, the salary of 40 million VND/month is also an ideal income for me."

Phuc Chien Thang Trading Joint Stock Company said that they have just received orders for 1,000 workers from European countries including Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Denmark for workers with skills in welding, construction, shipbuilding... with high income from 40 - 60 million VND/month. According to Mr. Nguyen Le Thang - Director of the company: There are many orders requiring skilled workers but it is very difficult for us to recruit. And as a result, since the beginning of the year, the company has only been able to send about 40 workers to European countries.

In addition to the European market, which is being actively promoted by brokerage units to reach workers in need, the Korean market continues to be considered an ideal workplace for Vietnamese workers.

According to Mr. Tran Huu Thuong - Deputy Director of the Provincial Employment Service Center: The Ministry of Labor and Employment of Korea announced that from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024, the country plans to hire about 110,000 immigrant workers to work in industrial and agricultural production facilities. Faced with a serious labor shortage in the country, the Korean Government has recently made efforts to implement many policies to attract foreign workers to ensure sustainable development for the economy. Notably, the Korean Foreign Manpower Policy Committee has just announced improvements to the foreign labor recruitment licensing regime (EPS Program) in which Vietnam is participating.

Accordingly, Korea actively revised regulations to promote the formation of skilled foreign human resources to serve the actual needs of enterprises; applied diverse methods of using foreign human resources to solve the labor shortage in remote areas and increased residential support to accelerate social adaptation for foreign human resources.

Grasping the needs of Korea, since mid-2022, relevant Vietnamese departments and branches, especially Nghe An Province, after receiving the official dispatch, have actively deployed training and support to accelerate the number of workers allowed to enter the land of kimchi.

Mr. Tran Huu Thuong said: “Up to now, 2,500 Nghe An workers have gone to South Korea. Although the number of workers wishing to work in the land of kimchi is very large, meeting the recruitment exams is extremely difficult.”

Faced with this situation, many brokerage units such as Phuc Chien Thang Company, Kaizen International Trading Joint Stock Company, and New Horizon Company are trying to negotiate with the Korean side to be allowed to sign contracts for E9-5 orders, and E10 orders for veterinary, domestic work, and fishing jobs.

“The high-income labor category is targeting skilled orders, because employers themselves want to have trust in Vietnamese workers, especially Nghe An workers,” said Mr. Nguyen Le Thang, Director of Phuc Chien Thang Trading Joint Stock Company.

Skilled workers are less likely to run away.

According to Mr. Nguyen Le Thang, the rate of workers with permanent residence in Nghe An and Ha Tinh who run away when going abroad is very high. Most of them are untrained workers and do not have stable jobs. Therefore, for general labor orders, Phuc Chien Thang Trading Joint Stock Company is limiting recruitment.

“We only recruit skilled workers for orders, because if we receive an order for about 100 workers but only need 10 workers to run away, the order will be immediately canceled, and we will not have another chance. Therefore, we only prioritize skilled workers, because skilled workers usually have high incomes so they do not run away,” said Mr. Thang.

According to the report of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, there are currently no complete statistics on the absconding rate in all markets where Nghe An workers work under contracts, but according to the report of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the total number of Vietnamese workers working in the markets is 712,607, of which 46,677 workers violate contracts and reside illegally, accounting for 6%. By region, the Asian market has the highest number of workers violating contracts and residing illegally, with 41,044/697,702 people. By ratio, Korea is the market with the highest number of workers absconding from contracts and residing illegally, with 12,245/46,000 people (accounting for 26%). The Taiwanese market has 24,000/256,576 people (accounting for 9%).

The main reason is still because workers "look at the mountain from this mountain and that mountain from that mountain", poor skills lead to wanting to change jobs to have a new job with a higher income.

According to Mr. Tran Phi Hung - Head of the Department of Employment - Labor Safety, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs: "The goal of 2024 is to send 16,500 workers to work abroad under contracts; improve the quality of human resources to meet the foreign labor market, especially focusing on the markets of Japan, Germany, Korea, Taiwan, Europe (such as Hungary, Romania, Croatia, ...), in which the rate of workers with technical expertise going abroad to work is increased to 60%".

Also according to the leader of the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs: To have a high rate of skilled workers when participating in labor export, it is necessary to do a good job of preparing labor resources before going abroad; focus on training and improving the quality of Nghe An labor skills, meeting the requirements of the foreign labor market. In particular, focusing on factors such as technical skills, foreign language proficiency, work experience, industrial style, sense of discipline...