Prime Minister: Need to focus on breakthroughs to improve the quality of vocational education

Attending and directing the conference were Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc; Politburo members - Party Central Committee Secretaries: Head of the Central Mass Mobilization Commission Truong Thi Mai; Head of the Central Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh and Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam along with leaders of 63 provinces and cities.

At Nghe An bridge, comrades Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Nguyen Bang Toan - Member of the Provincial Party Committee - Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs chaired the conference.Attending the conference were representatives of relevant departments and branches.

Resolve 5,900 backlog cases for meritorious people

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc talks with people with meritorious services at the ceremony to honor people with meritorious services to the revolution in the Northwest region held in Son La. Photo: Internet

Last year, local ministries and branches promptly and fully implemented policies and regimes for people with meritorious services to the revolution. Promulgated procedures for handling backlog of requests for confirmation of meritorious services; confirmed and resolved policies for cases of beneficiaries of war invalid policies and beneficiaries of policies like war invalids.

Review, consider, and resolve each specific case of meritorious people with outstanding records, with over 5,900 records requesting recognition of martyrs, war invalids, and people enjoying policies like war invalids. The results have confirmed and organized the awarding of certificates of merit to 1,250 martyrs, recognition of 2,500 war invalids and people enjoying policies like war invalids; and new issuance and exchange of over 50,000 certificates of merit.

Youth Union members of Thanh Chuong District visited and gave gifts to policy beneficiaries in Thanh Van commune. Photo: documents

The movements "Repaying gratitude", "When drinking water, remember its source", "Communes and wards do a good job of supporting war invalids, martyrs and people with meritorious services" continue to be widely developed in all localities.

Unemployment rate is 2.24%

At the conference, according to the report of the General Statistics Office, the unemployment rate of working-age laborers in 2017 was 2.24%, of which the urban area was 3.18%, meeting the assigned target.

Practical class at Vietnam - Korea Vocational College of Technology. Photo courtesy

Last year, the number of trained workers increased faster than the group with primary vocational and university degrees or higher. The estimated number of graduates in 2017 according to training levels is 1,900 thousand people, of which: College and Intermediate level is about 400 thousand people, primary level and training under 3 months is about 1,500 thousand people.

Ministries, sectors and localities have implemented solutions to improve the quality of vocational training for rural workers; replicated vocational training models for rural workers associated with building learning models in the community.

It is estimated that the whole year will create jobs for over 1,639.7 thousand people, reaching 102.48% of the plan, of which: Creating jobs domestically for 1,505 thousand people, reaching 100.7% of the plan; Sending over 134.7 thousand workers to work abroad under contracts, reaching 127.6% of the plan.

For the first time, over 130,000 workers were sent to work abroad under contracts, focusing on high-income markets (Taiwan nearly 70,000 people, Japan over 54,000 people, Korea over 5,000 people...).

In 2017, Nghe An created jobs for 37,500 workers.

Reporting at the conference, comrade Dinh Viet Hong informed that in 2017, Nghe An issued a Project to create jobs for workers in the period of 2016-2020; continued to innovate and strongly improve the investment environment, thus attracting many large-scale enterprises and economic groups to invest and produce in the province; thus, contributing to creating jobs, increasing income, and stabilizing the lives of the people. In 2017, jobs were created for 37,500 workers, of which 13,800 workers went to work abroad.

Comrade Dinh Viet Hong reported at the national online conference "Summary of work in 2017 and deployment of tasks for Labor, Meritorious People and Social Affairs in 2018". Photo: Thanh Nga

Implementing the direction of the Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, in 2017, Nghe An issued Plan 240 and Instruction 328 to conduct a comprehensive review of meritorious people other than those specified in Decision 408 who are entitled to the remaining policies to focus on resolving them. Up to now, Nghe An has no more outstanding policy records according to Decision 408 of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

Teaching sewing to ethnic minority women in Tan Ky district. Photo courtesy

Reporting at the conference, comrade Dinh Viet Hong stated that although many solutions have been implemented, the rate of Nghe An workers whose contracts have expired but have not returned home, staying to work and residing illegally in Korea is still high. The quality of human resources has not yet met the needs of the labor market, especially high-quality labor resources.

The province's poverty rate decreased by 2%, but is still higher than the national average.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc directed at the conference. Photo: Thanh Nga

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed: Last year, the industry achieved remarkable results, the targets assigned by the National Assembly and the Government on the rate of trained workers, the unemployment rate of urban workers and the reduction of the poverty rate were all completed and exceeded the plan, contributing to the whole country's comprehensive completion of 13 socio-economic development plan targets assigned by the National Assembly.

However, the Prime Minister said that despite achieving many remarkable results, the industry still needs to frankly acknowledge the shortcomings and limitations such as the slow innovation of vocational education, not really linked to the needs of society; the quality of human resources is still limited; compliance with the law on social insurance by many employers is not strict... leading to labor disputes and strikes.

Implementation and compliance with the law on sending Vietnamese workers abroad in some enterprises is still weak; the rate of workers leaving their contracts, residing and working illegally remains high.

Child abuse, violence, accidents and injuries still occur in many places; including a number of serious cases of child abuse and violence, causing outrage in society.

The Prime Minister emphasized: “The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is the embodiment of humanity, so the resolution of policies for people with meritorious services and vulnerable people in society needs to be given more attention, and there needs to be correct and accurate advisory plans to help the Government issue correct decisions that are in accordance with the people's wishes.”

The Prime Minister requested: In 2018, the Ministry needs to strive to comprehensively complete targets and tasks in the fields of labor, meritorious people and society; focusing on breakthroughs in improving the quality of vocational education and administrative reform./.