Manufacturing Business Technology
The southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai is trying to restore and develop traditional jobs by providing vocational training courses for labourers.
The province was once well known for many traditional handicrafts, including pottery making, cast-iron moulding, stone carving, wooden products, weaving and brocade textiles. However, a recent decrease of workers at these traditional jobs has caused concern.
According to statistics from the Dong Nais Industry and Trade Department, since 2006, the pottery-making industry has lost 1,000 labourers out of a total of 4,300. The Buu Long stone village, located in downtown Bien Hoa City , used to have more than 10 stone carving enterprises and hundred of skilled craftsmen. But many things have changed now.
“Young people are not keen on stone carving like in the past. I have found many talented people but they just learned for a short time and moved to a higher income job,” said Nguy Khac Phuoc, owner of the Nghia Hung stone carving company.
Phuoc also confirmed that he has had to refuse some large orders because there are not enough workers.
Bien Hoa pottery manufacturers also worry about human resources. Ngo Quang Man, owner of a pottery enterprise at Buu Hoa ward, revealed that most of his workers are over 40 and there are few of them under 30. In the very near future, the pottery making industry will face a serious shortage of workers, said Nguyen Thi Nguyen, chairwoman of Thai Duong Cooperative.
Around 30 percent of workers have left the Trong Nghia cast-iron moulding cooperative in Vinh Cuu district since the middle of 2007. Forty fine wood manufacturers in Trang Bom district have only been able to hire one-third of the labourers they need.
Unstable income and hard work are known as two reasons for the declining workforce. Furthermore, workers have to spend a lot of time to be skilled in traditional jobs.
Meanwhile, jobs in industrial and processing zones do not require a long time to train and newcomers earn the same salary as a skilled worker in a traditional job. Therefore, fewer young people are interested in handicraft jobs.
Last year, the provincial industrial promotion centre cooperated with enterprises to provide vocational training for over 1,000 workers in fine wooden products and pottery. However, these projects are only in the first phase. Other support for enterprises, such as technology transfer and trade promotion, have not been implemented yet.
(VNA)