Laborers rush to claim unemployment status, keep indifferent to apprenticeship

Laborers rush to claim unemployment status, keep indifferent to apprenticeship

Unemployed workers want to register their unemployment at state management agencies just to get unemployment allowances, while they do not intend to attend free apprenticeship courses.

In 2011, Hai Phong City reportedly had 3802 people registering their unemployment. Meanwhile, the figure jumped to 5757 just in the first eight months of the year.

Under the current regulations, unemployed workers would be able to attend free vocational training courses funded by the Unemployment Insurance Fund. However, none of the 5757 workers has registered the training courses.

On the morning of September 6, the Job Center in Hai Phong City, the only agency that receives unemployment registration in the city, was full of people. It was estimated that 100 people were queuing up here to register for unemployment. The receptionist continuously delivered unemployment registration forms to people, while other officers were all busy dealing with workers.

According to Nguyen Thi Nga, Director of the Hai Phong Job Center, the number of people registering unemployment in the first eight months of 2012 increased by 207 percent in comparison with the same period of 2011. Of this amount, 3507 can receive unemployment treatment, up by 226 percent. The redundant workers are mostly from footwear, garment, shipbuilding and steel enterprises.

Mai Thi Thu Hien, Head of the Unemployment Insurance Division, said that footwear and shipbuilding companies have been meeting big difficulties in the economic downturn and they have to either lay off workers, or offer low pay, which has led to the increasingly high number of unemployment rate.

In Hai Phong City, the unemployment registration division is located not far from the career consultancy division. While the former was always crowded with people coming to register unemployment, the latter was always deserted with no visitor coming to consult about vocational training.

When asked if they would attend apprentice courses, most of the redundant workers present at the job center shook their heads or laughed off.

Nguyen Thi Huong in An Duong ward of Le Chan district, said that she claimed the unemployment status in order to get 1.2 million dong a month in unemployment allowance, not to be eligible for free vocational training courses.

“1.2 million dong is just enough to partially cover our daily expenses. Meanwhile, I have to go selling vegetables at the market to earn extra money. How can I arrange money to follow the training courses?” Huong said.

Competent agencies in Hai Phong have confirmed that none of the unemployed workers intends to attend apprenticeship courses, and that people seem to keep indifferent to the training.

In principle, redundant workers are allowed to attend apprenticeship courses so that they can obtain better working skills which may help them find other jobs later. However, they still cannot see any benefits from this.

Under the current regulations, unskilled redundant workers would get 300,000 for one month apprenticeship course. However, the modest sum of money and the trained time are not enough to make learners obtain basic skills of new careers.

Analysts also said that one need a sum of money twice or triple the offered amount of money in order to be able to learn a new career.

A lot of unemployed workers are unskilled laborers, who do not have savings money. Therefore, when they get redundant, they have to work somewhere to earn money to feed themselves and children, while they cannot spend time on training.

Meanwhile, other redundant workers said they do not think the training would help them find new jobs. “A lot of school new graduates, who have qualification and foreign language skills, stay unemployed. Meanwhile, I am too old to learn something more,” a worker, 42 years old, said

vietnamnet