Training gives Tibetan villagers more job options

Thanks to government-funded training, Lhamo now runs a teahouse in the Tibet autonomous region's Nyemo county and earns enough to support her family.

She was a server earning just 500 to 1,500 yuan ($77 to $230) a month until last year, when training provided by the county government helped her become a chef.

Encouraged by her ability to acquire the necessary skills and feedback from her instructors, she decided to open a Tibetan teahouse selling food such as noodles and now earns up to 6,000 yuan a month.

"Now I am my own boss and I have become more energetic and confident," she said. "I'm happy to see that I can actually help my own family members have a better life."

Lhamo is one of many Tibet residents who have benefited from government training. Tibet has helped some 600,000 farmers and herdsmen find jobs in the service sector, a big change from their usual work, the region's department of human resources and social security said.

The additional jobs have generated income of more than 4.54 billion yuan for rural residents, more than doubling the region's annual target, data from the department showed.

Liu Li, an official from the department, said over 5,900 construction projects had also created more than 200,000 jobs for rural residents by September.

Rural residents account for more than 68 percent of Tibet's population, with more than 2.4 million farmers and herders living in 5,400 villages.

"The employment structure in Tibet's rural areas has become diversified in recent years thanks to the overall prosperity of economic and social development of the region," Kalsang Drolma, an economist at the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, told Xinhua News Agency.

"The private economy is providing a lot of rural employment and also activating the economic vitality of many townships capable of providing job opportunities."