Vocational training for social service beneficiaries

Khanh Hoa Social Service Center has opened short-term vocational classes to help beneficiaries of social service to learn a trade to facilitate better integration into the community. The activity has brought hopes to the less unfortunate.

Mat-weaving class at Khanh Hoa Social Service Center.

 

 

At present, 15 social service beneficiaries are attending a rattan mat weaving class at Khanh Hoa Social Service Center. An apprentice named Hoang Van Thanh, says, “I have been staying in the center for more than 10 years. The center has paid for all my daily expenses and now I can learn the trade of weaving rattan mats. I’m so happy. I will try my best to learn well so that I can earn my living when returning back into the community.” Earlier, Khanh Hoa Social Service Center had granted cake-making certificates to 15 people having completed a 3-month course with excellent results in both theory and practice tests.

 

Now they are able to make sponge cakes, jelly cakes and bread. Their products are not very eye-catching and tasty but they show their great patience and effort. Dang Van Khoi says, “I’m so delighted to learn how to make cakes. No I can make many kinds of cakes to serve other members in the center”.

 

The vocational training for social service beneficiaries is not easy at all. The center has hired teachers from vocational schools, famous bakeries and mat weaving institutions in Khanh Hoa Province. The teachers have to make lesson plans, specifically suitable for the special learners. Therefore, the vocational training at the center has proved effective, bringing hopes to apprentices and helping them to recover health, promote their skills and reach their potential. The center has opened a cake bakery for learners to practice on the premises to keep their trained capacities and skills. Their products cater to those in social care and support needs at the center.

 

Khanh Hoa Social Service Center plans to apply for opening a cake establishment at the center. At present, Lotte Mart Nha Trang has reserved a stall for the center to display products made by the learners, says Nguyen Phuoc Ninh, Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Social Service Center.

 

In the time to come, the vocational classes will be open to disabled people outside the center. Vocational training is expected to be provided to 100 people a year and 500 in Khanh Hoa Province by 2020. Apprentices will be offered grants under the Prime Minister’s Decision 46 dated September 28, 2015. Specifically, VND3.5 million grants will be offered to cake class learners and VND4.5 million grants to mat -weaving learners. Learners from outside the center will be offered VND15,000 for lunch and VND200,000 for travel every day. Besides, they will be provided dining and lodging if required. After completing the course, learners will be granted trade certificates and provided job recommendation. The center will cooperate with some agencies and businesses to find product consumption markets, according to Chu Van Cong, Director of Khanh Hoa Social Service Center.

 

The vocational training has proved effective, helping to create jobs for social service beneficiaries. It is also considered as rehabilitation and a health recovery therapy. Therefore, in the time to come, the department plans to request the center to consider expanding vocational training to some other careers suitable for social service beneficiaries’ health. Onsite vocational training in the community is also worth consideration to eliminate travel time and expense. In addition, more support and concern over finding product consumption markets are needed to create sustainable jobs, helping learners to promote skills they have learnt and practiced and thus successfully integrate into the community, according to Mai Xuan Tri, Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids & Social Affairs.

 

 

Van Giang

Translated by N.T