Motor industry keen to rev up mechanic numbers
Motor industry keen to rev up mechanic numbers
The local motor vehicle industry needs more than 500 automotive technicians each year to meet growing demand, according to an official in the training sector.
A teacher at the Automotive Technology Office of the Lao-German Technical School (LGTS), Mr Phomma commented recently the country could supply only 200 automotive technicians annually, well short of the number required. He said most motor mechanic graduates were from LGTS.
Meanwhile, the number of vehicles in the country had grown significantly since 2013, according to the Department of Public Worsk and Transport.
Total vehicle numbers in Laos for 2015 increased by 8.7 percent compared to 2014, going from 1,577,184 to 1,717,504, which included 1,326,868 motorcycles, 337,449 cars and 53,187 trucks.
Vientiane had the largest number of vehicles at 721,882, followed by Savannakhet (273,279) and Champassak provinces (145,289).
With motor vehicle imports increasing and economic growth of around 7 percent consumers are expected to continue their enthusiasm for purchasing vehicles.
With this in mind more automotive technicians were needed to service the country's auto industry growth but new graduates weren't covering 50 percent of demand, the LGTS teacher pointed out.
He said it would be a challenge for vocational schools to provide enough automotive students to supply the industry.
However, officials from the Ministry of Education and Sports mentioned that some auto companies were cooperating with vocational schools aiming to boost the number of local motor mechanics working with the companies after finishing their certificates
For example, Kolao Group recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Lao-Korean Labour Development Institute to train students for the group.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Education and Sports is promoting the importance of learning vocational subjects to young people in an attempt to get them interested in becoming automotive technicians.
Concerned officials stressed this would be instil confidence in foreign companies to further expand their auto operations in Laos where young people make up around 50 percent of the labour force.
