The Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) aims to enroll 1.7 million students in vocational training schools in the 2010-2011 school year. The country is now home to more than 2,000 vocational training establishments, including 55 vocational training colleges. However, their training quality is a matter of special concern, the Vietnam News Agency said Aug 24, citing the ministry. In fact, 25% of vocational training graduates fail to meet requirements of FDI firms. The country is in redundancy of unskilled workers, but lack of skilled ones, the MoLISA admitted, noting that training establishments remain less attractive to local students. Vietnam should pay more attention to improve vocational training quality, as it plays an important role to the country’s FDI attraction, UNDP experts noted. The Southeast Asian country attracted a total pledged foreign direct investment (FDI) of $7.5 billion in the first five months of this year, down 23% from a year earlier. Vietnam now has 47 million people of working age. It aims to raise its trained manpower rate to 30% in 2010 from 28% in 2009. The unemployment rate in its urban areas is currently at 5.02%, some 0.08% lower than 2006. (Vietnam News Aug 24 p6)
