German Bank Lends Vietnam $13.3M to Improve Vocational Training by 2014

German Reconstruction Bank (KfW) has agreed to provide EUR10 million ($13.3 million) in official development assistance (ODA) loans to Vietnamese vocational schools to improve their teaching quality and training capacity. An agreement to this effect has been signed recently by the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the German bank. The Vietnamese government will contribute EUR2.5 million to the EUR12.5-million project which will be implemented over four years until 2014. Priority will be given to upgrading equipment for vocational training centers that specialize in electricity, electronics and mechanical engineering. Vietnam now has 102 vocational training colleges, 265 vocational training schools and more than 1,860 vocational training centers. Annually, vocational training schools train more than 1.5 million laborers. The training quality, however, has not met increasing demands of enterprises. (Saigon Giai Phong –Saigon Liberation Nov 27)