In order to facilitate Da Nang’s labourers to access job opportunities in foreign countries, vocational training schools across the city have actively developed courses in employment majors for which foreign countries have great demand, including nursing, caring for ornamental plants, mechanics, and construction.

The signing of a cooperation agreement between the Viet Nam-Australia Vocational School and the Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered Esuhai company on training labourers for export to Japan

In reality, nursing is much favoured by such developed countries as Germany, and Japan. These countries faced the shortage of nurses and orderlies while in Viet Nam, graduates in this sector were unemployed or paid modestly.

Taking this fact, the Da Nang-based Phuong Dong Junior College started enrolling students into the Nursing Faculty in 2007. To date, 11 academic courses have been offered to 9,252 trainees.

Mr Le Ngoc Viet, the Chairman of the school board, said, after their graduation, the nurses have been employed by many medical establishments and related units throughout the country. In March 2016, the school started sending its qualified graduates to foreign countries for guest work. Currently, 8 nurses are working in Germany, whilst 20 in Japan, plus 35 others who are attending training courses in preparation for their guest in Japan.

The school received very positive feedback from the Japan-based recruiters on its interns’ good working spirit, attitude and professional skills. Especifically, the Vietnamese labourers are usually highly praised for being healthy, hardworking, industrious, honest, eager to learn and highly-skilled.

The Da Nang-based Dong A University (DAU) has already entered into an agreement on internship programmes with Japan’s Kameda Medical Centre. Under the agreement, Kameda will offer paid internships in Japan for 50 final year students from DAU’s Nursery Faculty every April.

The students who have already reached the N4 level of Japanese will be sent to Kameda to practise their skills, and enhance their Japanese language skills for a year. After finishing their internships, the Da Nang students will return to their country to graduate with degrees from DAU. Anyone who wants to work in Kameda can register for their 5-year internship programmes, and they will receive monthly salaries of around 1,700 USD each. During the 5-year stay in Japan, these Vietnamese students will continue improving their Japanese language skills to reach the N1 level of Japanese in order to work in Japan for a long term.

In a similar vein, the Viet Nam-Australia Vocational School (VAVS) has entered into a cooperation programme with the Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered Esuhai company on training labourers for export to Japan.

Under their agreements, VAVS’ students can access well-paid internships in Japan. In detail, VAVS is responsible for helping its students enhance their professional skills to work for Japanese firms. Meanwhile, the Esuhai company is in charge of offering 6-month-long Japanese courses for the selected students, and then introducing them to Japanese businesses which are active in the hospitality sector.

As for the participating students, during their entire internship in Japan, they only pay 35 million VND each which is spent on buying their air tickets, visa registrations, interview costs, and Japanese training fees.

A total of 1,739 labourers from Da Nang are now working abroad, of whom only 244 are in Japan, Taiwan (China), Malaysia, and South Korea. Those wishing to work abroad, must have good health, and essential skills such as foreign language, and expertise.

Of note, the biggest challenge faced by Vietnamese workers is the proficiency of foreign languages. Vietnamese jobseekers will need at least 6 months to learn a foreign language and get used to foreign working styles and culture.

Besides, it is suggested that domestic labour exporters should also invest more in training facilities and meet stringent requirements of foreign labour importers.