Help the country's migrant workers help themselves

By Zhu Yuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-10 09:58

That so many rural migrant workers consider skill or expertise in a particular field as an important source of wealth suggests they have a strong desire to gain knowledge that may help them increase their income.

As with any worker, vocational training leads to an improvement in the services they provide and the quality of the manufacturing work they do.

A survey by the National Statistics Bureau notes that the more education a rural migrant worker receives, the easier it will be for him or her to adapt to an urban environment.
The central government has earmarked funds to provide rural migrant workers with such training.

To increase the access of rural migrant workers to vocational training, the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council launched the Rain and Dew Program this year to provide professional training to poverty-stricken rural youths and demobilized soldiers in rural areas.

This program led to the establishment of the National Poverty-Stricken Rural Youth Training School in Beijing, the first of its kind. More of these schools will be set up all over the country. The program is expected to train 5 million rural youngsters in the four years to come.

The message of this survey is that much more needs to be done to help rural migrant workers get integrated into urban life. The easier and faster the process, the earlier the government will realize its goal of common prosperity.


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