For illustration only.Pham Thi Thanh Thuy from the central province of Binh Thuan got a job as an accountant in HCM City after she got off a coach at the Mien Dong inter-provincial coach station.

Thuy, a new graduate from the Dong Nai Province-based Vocational College No. 8, was one of thousands of people who were provided free job introductions at the city's three inter-provincial coach stations under the programme "Support Labourers" launched on Monday.

The programme, which was organised by the YES-Centre in cooperation with other units and Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, aims to provide free job introductions to provincial job seekers when they arrive by bus at An Suong, Mien Dong and Mien Tay inter-provincial coach stations.

Nguyen Tri Quang, director of the YES-Centre, which provides job consultancy, vocational training and job introductions for city youth, said the opening of employment introduction centres at the inter-provincial coach stations would create favourable conditions for both labourers and employers.

With this programme, provincial job seekers can be introduced to a job on the first day they arrive in the city without the need to go anywhere to find a job.

Employers can directly provide job consultancy and recruit employees at inter-provincial coach stations.

A total of 225 companies registered with the programme to recruit more than 17,000 manual workers and professional employees in various sectors.

The programme is expected to help 20,000 labourers from the provinces find jobs this year.

From February 13 to March 11, 300 volunteers, mostly college and university students, will provide job-seeking consultancies, road and city bus-route guidance, and information on inexpensive boarding houses and motorbike taxi services for job-seekers.

"We have prepared more than 10,000 leaflets to introduce the programme and hundreds of bus route maps to provide for job seekers," Nguyen Chi Cong, who is responsible for the programme at Mien Tay Coach Station.

A group of trustworthy motorbike taxi drivers are also available at the coach station to transport labourers to boarding houses.

Vo Thi Ngoc Mai, head of the Binh Tan District Youth Union's Youth and Labourer Division, said 2,000 low-price boarding rooms, each costing VND800,000-1,000,000 a month, were available in Binh Tan District.

Over the past two months, Binh Tan's youth union members worked hard to locate the boarding rooms, according to Mai.

* Labour inspection standards need to improve

A seminar on raising capacity in the implementation of international commitments on labour inspection was held in Ho Chi Minh City on February 16. 

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has set up a system of international labour standards, conventions and recommendations drawn up by governments, employees, employers to regulate all labour issues. 

Though actively joining the international labour standard system, the number of conventions ratified by Vietnam is still low compared to other countries in the region and the world. 

According to ILO, Vietnam’s reports on labour are yet to give specific figures while analyses are not persuasive enough. 

Experts suggested that Vietnam should change to a systematic inspection model instead of detailed inspection by focusing on hot issues, such as labour contracts, social insurance, workplace accidents and child labour.

They said labour inspectors should develop fine relationships with employers’ organisations as well as trade unions to facilitate the implementation of labour safety management in businesses and industries.

Source: VNS