HCMC – The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has submitted for Government approval a project of innovative vocational training in rural areas including advanced technologies, whose final cost may amount to VND30 trillion, the ministry’s Vietnam Administration of Vocational Training said.

Nguyen Tien Dung, director of the administration, said that according to the project, training for 100 different jobs would be arranged in accordance with current standards of national vocational education to meet rising demand for both skilled and unskilled labor for the socio-economic development of the country. The project will be implemented from 2010 to 2020, Dung told the Daily late last week.

Dung said the most important parts of the project would be the improvement of professional qualifications for teachers, the renovation of vocational teaching programs and the enhancement of the facilities and equipment for job training.

The administration will cooperate with a German agency to carry out a pilot program to train students in mechanical engineering. It will also adopt the German model for vocational training so that the country can adopt the model by 2015, he said.

According to enterprises, especially foreign investors, the quality of job training for skilled workers in high-technology industries at many junior technical colleges is inadequate. Many technical students lack experience or are weak in foreign languages upon graduation.

Campbell Macpherson, general director of Schoeller Bleckman OilFields Equipment Vietnam Company in Binh Duong Province, told the Daily late last week that the company found it difficult to recruit 120 skilled technical workers. The company recently started producing drill bits for oilfields in Dong An Industrial Park in Binh Duong Province.

Last month the company received nearly 100 job applications, then finally recruited only 10 technical workers. No fresh grads from vocational colleges met the company’s requirements, Campbell said.