New policy on training Vietnamese workers to work in Korea

Determined not to stay and work illegally

The couple from Phu Tho who brought their young child to the Vietnamese Labor Day in Korea have been in the land of Kim Chi for 8 years. Initially, the husband went to work in Korea under the EPS program, with an E9 visa (a visa for foreign workers working under an agreement signed by Korea with several countries, including Vietnam), and the wife went to study Korean language. The couple got married and had children in the neighboring country.

The time spent working in Korea has changed the lives of many workers (Photo: Thai Anh).

After finishing school and having children, the wife stayed home to take care of their son, who is now almost 2 years old. The husband became a technical worker, had his visa extended, and became a resident visa but still had many restrictions such as being allowed to work only in the factory. He is currently a technician, specializing in designing software to make molds and cold lathes, earning enough to take care of the whole family.

"If I were in Vietnam, I certainly wouldn't have a job with such a high income. Although things are quite stable now, my wife and I still intend to return home when we have prepared all the right conditions. The life of workers like us here is 12 hours a day working in the factory, going to work and then going home to sleep. The work is hard to make money," the male worker affirmed that he is determined not to go out to work "illegally", even though every year he has to struggle to get a visa extension, for the sake of life and the long-term future.

The joy for the couple and their small family is that they can still live among a community of many Vietnamese workers in the Ansan industrial park. The problem that many workers worry about after returning home is work.

According to statistics at the end of October 2020, Ansan city had 51,000 people, Hwaseong city had 43,000 people and Siheung city had 36,000 foreigners living and working, of which the highest was China, the second was Vietnam. In total, out of 2.5 million foreigners in Korea, there are 280,000 Vietnamese.

Every morning, the first thing that Le Van Huy and his wife, the owners of the "Country Flavor" vermicelli restaurant in Siheung City, do is prepare ingredients to make their Vietnamese dishes. Huy came to Korea in 2009 on an E9 visa and worked at an automobile manufacturing plant.

After 12 years of struggling abroad, Huy and his wife opened a Hanoi bun cha restaurant in the distant land of Korea. Vietnamese dishes were very well received. After 2 years, the number of customers coming to the Vietnamese bun cha restaurant is increasing.

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan encouraged a Vietnamese worker to go to Korea to study and work, and now has a long-term work visa (Photo: Thai Anh).

This has become one of the famous restaurants in Siheung city, which is also a gathering place for Vietnamese people in the area. Huy and his wife always try to support their new compatriots to help each other overcome the initial confusion and difficulties due to cultural and language differences.

Mr. Huy has now obtained Korean citizenship, his wife has an F6 visa (a visa for foreign citizens who have completed the legal procedures to marry a Korean and intend to live in Korea).

At the Vietnamese Labor Day in Korea this year, Mr. Le Anh Huy received gifts and congratulatory flowers from Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ba Hoan.

New training policy is an opportunity for EPS workers

Speaking at the program, Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan emphasized that sending Vietnamese workers to work abroad is a major policy of the Vietnamese Government, aiming to solve employment, create good income, improve skills and professional style for workers. From there, it contributes to creating high-quality human resources to return to build the country, at the same time, labor cooperation will contribute to strengthening the friendship and long-term cooperation in depth and substance between Vietnam and other countries, including Korea.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan presented a gift of encouragement to Mr. Le Van Huy, an outstanding Vietnamese worker in Korea (Photo: Thai Anh).

Labor cooperation between Vietnam and Korea has developed extensively in many aspects in recent times. The number of more than 250,000 Vietnamese people living and working in Korea and about 200,000 Korean people living and working in Vietnam clearly demonstrates this.

In fact, since 2004, there have been nearly 130,000 workers under the EPS Program going to Korea with E9 visas, along with thousands of highly skilled workers granted E7 visas and seasonal workers granted E8 visas. In contrast, there are about 17,000 Korean workers granted work permits in Vietnam every year. In the past 2 years, the number of EPS workers entering Korea each year has been more than 10,000 people.

Appreciating the attention and support of the Siheung City government in particular and Gyeonggi Province in general for more than 44,000 Vietnamese people living and working in the area, Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan also acknowledged the useful and timely support of the Siheung City Foreign Labor Support Center for Vietnamese workers.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan encouraged the Thanh Hoa FC football team of the Vietnamese labor community in Korea to play a friendly match at the job fair (Photo: Thai Anh).

Talking to a Vietnamese student who is studying and working at Gyeonggi College of Science and Technology, who has been granted a long-term work visa, the Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs further emphasized Korea's new policy on the work-study training program for EPS workers, helping workers improve their professional qualifications and gain degrees to be able to convert to a high-level visa.

Praising workers who have complied with their contracts, obeyed the law, returned home on time, especially those who have made efforts to re-enter Korea and successfully started a business in the host country, the leader of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs affirmed that this is the best way to maintain this labor market.

"The new training policy for EPS workers is a good opportunity for them to study and improve their qualifications and skills to meet the increasing demands of the labor market in Korea and when they return to Vietnam. Please try to work and improve your skills. We are ready to support workers in finding jobs and starting businesses after returning home, promoting the knowledge and experience accumulated in Korea to develop their careers and contribute to the country's development," said Deputy Minister Nguyen Ba Hoan.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/chinh-sach-moi-ve-dao-tao-lao-dong-viet-sang-han-quoc-lam-viec-20231210134222256.htm