A training programme to equip Vietnamese guest workers with necessary knowledge and skills before they are sent abroad has been launched by the Vietnam Association of Manpower Supply (VAMAS).

The programme, supported by the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and the Western Union Fund, will be implemented at labour export businesses nationwide until the end of 2010.

Aside from training courses, it will provide handbooks with essential information for labourers who will work in Taiwan , the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Libya , as well as support them in transmitting cash to their homeland.

The programme is undertaken in respond to the urgent need of improving workers’ quality to meet the increasingly high demand of overseas markets, said Nguyen Luong Trao, VAMAS’s chairman.

Drina Yue, Managing Director and Senior Vice President for Asia-the Pacific of the Western Union , said the programme will help Vietnamese workers quickly integrate into foreign cultures.

In 2007, the Western Union Co. partnered with the Overseas Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) to organise training courses for guest workers in foreign language, life skills and knowledge.

MoLISA statistics show that in the first five months of this year, around 29,500 workers were sent to work abroad, up 5 percent over the same period last year.

The country’s key labour export markets include Taiwan , UAE, Laos , Libya and Japan./.