Training planned for skilled hands
By Fu Jin (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-12-18 00:37

Twenty skilled workers were awarded titles of national master hands on Friday for their excellent workplace performance.

Among the winners were Xu Zhenchao, a cargo driver with 30 years of experience from East China's port city Qingdao, and Yu Jianyou, a plasterer from the coastal city Yantai of Shandong Province.

The 20 winners were thrown into the spotlight for their hard-working spirit and new methods to improve efficiency and cut costs.

"They are examples of millions of Chinese workers, the backbone of the country's booming economy," Vice-Premier Huang Ju said while addressing the award ceremony.

Skilled workers should enjoy equal respect as scientists and professors because of their important role in developing the country, Huang said.

The award is a continuation of the government's commitment to helping supply more well-educated labour for job fairs thirsty for such labours, said Huang.

Huang urged local governments to do a good job in training 500,000 skilled workers from 2004 to 2006 to meet the demand for such workers in many places.

Zheng Silin, minister of labour and social security said Friday this year has seen great achievements in training 100,000 highly-skilled workers.

Zheng said the government planned to train 150,000 skilled workers in 2005, following this year's national training plan of 100,000. By the end of 2006, the country will finish its blueprint to train a total of 500,000 skilled workers nationwide.

Zheng said there is a shortage of skilled workers in many industries across China, especially in major economic powerhouses, like the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.

"A lack of skilled workers has had a negative effect on the development of some products, enterprises and industries," said Zheng.

Statistics show that among the nation's 70 million workers, senior technicians account for only 3.5 per cent, compared with a 40 per cent ratio in developed countries.

This year, only one out of 10 positions needing skilled workers at job fairs can be filled and the average worker locates two job options.

Several days ago, the ministry's employment director Yu Famin said western regions and Northeast China will become the bases of such training as the three-year training programme will help offer well-educated labour for the country's strategies to develop western China and rejuvenate the old industrial belt.

Yu said a national vocational training centre is in planning to achieve the goal and the government is considering appropriating fiscal funds for the endeavour.

Thanks to the booming economic situation, Minister Zheng said the country's urban registered unemployment rate is expected to stand at 4.3 per cent at the end of this year, 0.4 percentage points lower than the goal the government set at the same time last year.

Zheng said the government planned to create about 9 million new jobs in 2005 and the urban registered unemployment rate has been lowered to 4.6 per cent, 0.1 percentage points lower than this year's control target set at the end of 2003.

But researchers said employment is a constant challenge for the Chinese Government.

Cai Fang, a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the whole picture of China's employment should include the situation in rural areas, where about 15 million surplus labourers remain.

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