The number of students who have already registered at 22 state owned vocational schools around the country has increased to around 10,000 but has fallen short of the targets set by the government.

The Ministry of Education and Sports' Technical and Vocational Education Department was aiming to increase enrollments at technical colleges to 15,000 in an effort to address the skills shortage in the trades and labour sector, but while enrolments have increased they have still fallen short of the target.

The ministry's decision to accept more students into vocational education programmes was also part of the ministry's development plan to boost skilled labour from 2010 to 2015.

At present, over 20,000 students are studying at the 22 state owned vocational schools and more than 40,000 students are undertaking courses at 73 private vocational institutions.

Although the number of students entering vocational education has gradually increased over the past few years, Laos is still suffering from a lack of skilled labour, according to a senior education official.

Director General of the Vocational Educaton Department, Mr Nouphanh Outsa told Vientiane Times  yesterday that most students prefer to study English, accounting, IT and other courses which don't match the policy of the government to attract them to study agriculture, garment manufacturing, engineering, mining and other related subjects.

“Accepting more students will produce more skilled human resources in preparation for integration with the Asean Economic Community in 2015,” he said.

“The vocational courses provide skills to suit the needs of the labour market and give young students the expertise needed for the development of their communities.”

He said the development of technical and vocational education training would still face diverse problems such as the increasing number of graduates from secondary schools unable to find sufficient training places.

In order to address these problems, Mr Nouphanh has called for vocational education institutions to offer training in more occupations including management of real estate, mining management, tourism, commerce, communication, transport, IT, handicrafts, the processing industry and services.

To meet market demand the vocational schools need to introduce new courses including mining, electrical engineering, construction, electronics, auto mechanics, hospitality and other related subjects, for which Laos is currently facing a shortage.

Mr Nouphanh confirmed that these courses can improve the students' chances of setting up a business and are offered as either a two or three year programme.

At present, despite the fact the ministry provides vocational education scholarships to secondary school graduates, they do not want to study as they believe that they will not get good jobs. Some also think that if they finish vocational school, they will end up working as labourers who aren't paid that well.

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