An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Vietnam's Vocational Training Project for Rural Laborers

Abstract

This study focused on evaluating the project on vocational training for rural laborers in Vietnam with respect to its effectiveness in employment creation and poverty reduction among rural laborers. The investigation took the form of a case study; official policy statistics, a survey of 300 project participants and interviews with eight vocational teachers were collected to triangulate the data. Our findings found that while the project met its initial objectives of increasing the trained laborer rate, creating jobs, and reducing poverty, Vietnam's traditional culture in addition to a lack of funding and vocational training poses potential obstacles to further increases in rural laborers’ income and industrial transformation. In contrast to previous work, this study incorporated multidimensional poverty criteria with three sources of data from different stakeholders’ perspectives to provide a more comprehensive and realistic picture of the long-term poverty reduction effect of the vocational training policy. Further implication for policy practice and policy evaluation method were discussed.

Keywords

employment creation rural laborers poverty reduction vocational training Vietnam

Introduction

Vocational education and training (VET) is usually considered a type of education that prepares people for employment in a job or a group of jobs, and it is usually seen as an essential element of poverty reduction in rural areas, with great potential for eliminating poverty by enhancing employability via education skills (McGrath & Powell, 2016; Okumu & Bbaale, 2019). UNESCO (2010) estimated that approximately 80% of occupations around the world that rely on applied skills can be learned through VET. Kao et al. (2016) suggested that VET programs represent one way of supporting disadvantaged target groups by improving their technical and business skills, leading to higher productivity and self-employment, which fosters improved self-confidence, better productivity, and higher performance levels.

Lesley Powell (2012) indicated that VET has a dual role in Africa. First, it contributes to economic development by providing skills necessary for competing in the global economic environment. Second, it contributes to poverty reduction and social equity achievement through expanding participation in education and training aimed at employment, particularly employability within communities most affected by unemployment and poverty. Wallenborn (2009) describes a successful VET program in Chile, the Jovén training program, that created employment and self-employment for approximately 70% of participants. In another study on VET in Nigeria, Ifeanyichukwu et al. (2018) indicated that VET helps with skill acquisition, hunger, and poverty reduction. Therefore, it is seen to be an essential part of national development policies in many developing countries (Okwelle et al., 2017).

Since Vietnam is a developing country, employment and poverty problems, especially in rural areas, have always been given attention by the government (Nguyen & Tran, 2021). The Vietnamese government has always identified employment creation and poverty reduction as top priorities in Vietnam's development (Pham & Riedel, 2019). Therefore, The Vietnamese government has proposed many VET policies for other labor groups, e.g., farmers, rural women, youth, and ethnic minorities (Nguyen et al., 2020), including the Project on Vocational Training for Rural Laborers (PVTRL), a VET policy implemented from 2010 to 2020 for increasing employment creation and reducing poverty in rural areas. The government evaluated the project's effectiveness each year based on statistics such as the number of trained laborers and the rate of job creation, then argued that the project had produced satisfactory results. However, at present, apart from the official policy assessment reports of government agencies and local authorities, there have been very few academic studies that have objectively evaluated this policy on the basis of a combination of multiple data sources to avoid bias and increase the validity of previous findings.

For example, Nguyễn and Lê (2014) only assessed the project's employment creation effectiveness in four villages in the Tam Binh district of Vinh Long province, while Dũng (2019) explored PVTRL's effect from the perspective of ethnic minorities. These studies fall short in two respects. First, since these evaluations were conducted merely a few months after the training, they took into account only short-term effects, while the effects of poverty-related projects may take several years to be realized (Barrientos, 2013). This suggests that a mid-term or long-term evaluation would be necessary to examine PVTRL's effectiveness more exactly and comprehensively. Second, previous policy evaluations have primarily relied on official, output-oriented quantitative data. To provide a more comprehensive evaluation, this study employs a data-triangulation approach that considers relevant policy stakeholders’ perspectives and incorporates a variety of criteria to analyze the long-term effect of a Vietnamese vocational training project directed toward rural workers’ employment creation and poverty reduction by employing multidimensional poverty criteria. The study takes place in Long An province, where 80% of the population lives in rural areas, and 20,964 people are from poor households. The study addresses the following research questions:

- From stakeholder perspectives (PVTRL's governing bodies, participants, and vocational teachers), how effective was PVTRL in improving the number of trained workers and enhancing rural laborers’ employment creation and poverty reduction?

- How satisfied were project participants and vocational teachers with the project, what did they feel were PVTRL's limitations, and what were their corresponding suggestions?

Literature Review

VET Programs in Long An Province Prior to PVTRL

Before PVTRL, a few VET programs were also implemented in Vietnam, including Long An province. For example, a program to support vocational training and employment for laborers in the region changed the purpose of agricultural land use in accordance with Directive No. 11/2006/CT-TTg. This program was issued and implemented in 2006 and has attracted a large number of rural workers to participate in vocational training and change jobs after their agricultural land was converted through industrial development.

The vocational training program under Resolution No. 24/2008/NQ-CP on agricultural development, farmers, and rural areas has also trained about one million rural workers each year (PCoLAP, 2011). Specifically in Long An province, during the period before PVTRL implementation (2005–2010) vocational training over the whole province was provided for 33,545 mainly poor and the disabled, rural workers, including 13,155 female laborers and 20,390 male laborers (PCoLAP, 2011). Although these programs were focused only on a few specific audiences, they are considered prerequisite projects for PVTRL.

An Overview of PVTRL of Long An Province

Specific Activities, Objectives, and Strategies of PVTRL of Long An Province

PVTRL was issued and implemented at both national and provincial levels. In Long An province, PVTRL has been implemented since 2011 with the main objectives of increasing the quality and effectiveness of vocational training for rural laborers (including both agricultural and non-agricultural workers) with respect to creating jobs, reducing poverty, and contributing to raising the number of trained workers in the province to 60% by 2015 and 70% by 2020 (PCoLAP, 2011). Long An province's specific objectives are shown in Table 1, and specific financial support from PVTRL of Long An province was as follows:

Table 1.

Specific Objectives of the Project in Long An Province.

Period	The number of trained laborers			The rate of job creation
Period	Total	Agriculture	Non-Agriculture	The rate of job creation
2011–2015	36,900	19,900	17,000	Above 70%
2016–2020	23,906	14,751	9,155	Above 80%
Total	60,806	34,651	26,155	Above 75%

Source: PCoLAP (2011).

Teachers participating in vocational training in mountainous, remote, and disadvantaged areas were supported with public housing and a monthly mobile allowance equal to 0.2 times the common minimum salary (approximately US$13). The project's vocational teacher’s pay, depending on their level, was between US$1.08 and US$2.6/an hour.

There were three levels of financial aid for learners: First, learners from poor households, near-poor households, disabled people, people providing meritorious service to the revolution, and those whose farmland had been confiscated, were supported when they enrolled in short-term vocational training courses, including vocational elementary level and vocational training for less than 3 months. Support levels included a maximum of US$130.40 per person per course, support for meals at a rate of US$0.65/day, and support for public-transport travel at a maximum level not exceeding US$8.70 per person per course for apprentices traveling. Second, learners with incomes of up to 150% of the income of poor households were supported with short-term vocational training costs with a maximum of US$108.70 per person per course. Third, other learners were supported for the cost of short-term vocational training at a maximum of US$87 per person per course. In addition, all learners participating at vocational intermediate or a higher level were supported with concessional loans to pay for tuition and expenses incurred in the course of study, and rural laborers after graduating could borrow money to create self-employment opportunities from the National Employment Fund at preferential interest rates if required.

In Long An province, this project was implemented uniformly from the provincial level (level 2) to the district level (level 3) and the commune level (level 4) in terms of the training program, the training duration, and the financial support policy. The secondary data used in this study were aggregated from level 3 project implementation results (all districts of the Long An province).

Implementation Process of the Project's Vocational Training and Disburse Financial Aids

Based on the survey results of vocational training demands, the project governing body had an enrollment plan every year, and rural laborers seeking to participate could register with the project management staffs in their locality. Short-term vocational training classes were held in each locality to encourage people to participate in vocational training. Vocational intermediate and vocational college-level classes were held on the campuses of vocational schools.

Those subject to tuition support were paid directly when enrolling; other aids such as travel and meal expenses based on the actual number of school days were paid immediately after course completion. Concessional loans to pay tuition for the vocational intermediate level or higher were disbursed after admission. In particular, preferential loans for those seeking self-employment opportunities were disbursed after participants had completed the course and indicated a desire for such loans.

Previous VET and PVTRL Studies

VET, especially VET for the disadvantaged in society, has long attracted the attention of scholars and policy analysts. For example, in a study on government-sponsored vocational training for adults, McCall et al. (2016) affirmed that policies that invest in human capital are important, and that participation of governments in this process greatly contributes to the success and effectiveness of the policy. The mechanism of VET involves skill development brought about by the VET process, employment creation, and poverty alleviation by assisting rural labor transfers to employment and promoting growth in farmer per-capita income (Fredman, 2014; Xu & Sun, 2021). Various scholars argue that VET has made important contributions to employment creation and poverty reduction (Silwal & Bhatta, 2017). In a study on assessing the effectiveness of VET in improving employability in Nepal, Silwal and Bhatta (2017) argued that in addition to employment creation, VET has potential for reducing poverty among training program participants through either self-employment or wage employment.

In Vietnam, since PVTRL was issued, it has significantly contributed to enhancing the number of trained workers, employment creation, transformation of labor structures, and enhancing income in rural areas, thereby significantly improving socio-economic conditions and living standards of people in rural areas (PCoLAP, 2020). In a study on assessing the effectiveness of PVTRL in four villages in the Tan Binh district, Vinh Long province, Nguyễn and Lê (2014) assessed that PVTRL is one of the beneficial and effective policies focusing on vocational training for idle laborers in rural areas and increasing the number of trained laborers. This project, therefore, not only brings efficiency in creating jobs, improving household incomes, and reducing poverty, but also contributes to maintaining security and order in rural areas and shortening the income gap between rural and urban areas (Dũng, 2019; Nguyễn & Lê, 2014). Comparing PVTRL to other VET programs being implemented in Vietnam, such as vocational training project for women and for youths, Thắng (2014) argued that PVTRL is a more comprehensive project with specific goals and strategies, combined with transparent financial support policies and a broader target audience, including all idle workers in rural areas, regardless of gender, class, and religion.

Research Method

Data Collection and Procedures

This study employed a mixed-methods research design. The strength of this method is increasing the validity of study findings through data triangulation (Nancy Carter, 2014). In the study, we collected data from three sources and explained as follows.

Secondary Data

To identify PVTRL activities, objectives, specific strategies and its’ general result in creating employment and reducing poverty, we collected three policy documents from the government. In addition, ten annual reports (from 2011–2020), one report for the 2011–2015 period, one report for the 2016–2020 period, and one final report for the 2011–2020 period were also collected.

Questionnaire Survey

We conducted a questionnaire survey to seek understanding of project participants’ economic improvement after the training, and their perceptions regarding the project, including satisfaction, limitations, and suggestions. The questionnaire included three sections. The first included demographic information. The second consisted of 18 items asking about the level of participant satisfaction with respect to the project's impact on job creation and socio-economic aspects. Ten items used to measure participants’ satisfaction had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.851, and the items measuring the employment creation impact and socio-economic impact of the project had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.863. The last section posed two questions about the project's limitations and suggestions for improvement. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were ensured.

With support from the local government, a cluster-sampling method was used to select 300 poor household participants (Table 2) who joined the project in 2015 and were the main laborers in their households, with their main income from professions for which they were trained under PVTRL. This decision was made because 5 years was a sufficient interval for evaluating the project's training effect on employment creation and poverty reduction (Barrientos, 2013). Additionally, selecting only participants from poor households reduced the influence of Vietnamese economic development on their household income, while ensuring that the most susceptible participants to the project's aims were chosen.

Table 2.

Demographic Information of Participants (N = 300).

Gender		Location		Professional group		Vocational training Level			Employment form
Male	Female	Rural district	Industrial district	Agricultural profession	Non-agricultural profession	College and intermediate level	Elementary level	Vocational training less than 3 months	Self-employment	Salaried- employment
150	150	150	150	212	88	0	112	188	159	141

Interview

To collect additional information from other stakeholders and triangulate our findings from other data sources, vocational teachers in the project were interviewed to obtain their opinions regarding the advantages, weaknesses, and limitations of this project as well as their relevant suggestions. We only selected teachers who had participated in the project for at least 5 years to ensure they had a full understanding of the project and could therefore provide accurate judgment and assessment. With support of local government, eight vocational teachers were selected (Table 3).

Table 3.

Summary of the Information about Interviewees.

Code	Working place	The years of experience
T1	Vocational college	10
T2	Vocational college	10
T3	Industrial district	10
T4	Industrial district	7
T5	Agricultural district	6
T6	Agricultural district	10
T7	Industrial district	6
T8	Agricultural district	5

Data Analysis

With regard to survey data, SPSS 20 software was used to conduct a descriptive analysis to explore participant perceptions of and satisfaction with the project. With respect to semi-structured interview data, we used a thematic analytical framework to analyze data using an inductive approach (Ryan & Bernard, 2003). In the study, two techniques, viz., word repetitions and similarities and differences, were applied to determine issues with similar or different answers and to organize them into separate groups for addressing the research question (Ryan & Bernard, 2003).

Finally, comparisons were made of evaluations from the annual and final reports of the project governing body, results from the quantitative survey questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews representing varied stakeholders’ perspectives. Similar results were taken to mean that validity had been established (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Data Triangulation Method. Source: adopted from Dang (2015).

Findings

The Project's Effectiveness in Improving Laborer Participation in Vocational Training in Long An’s Rural Areas

According to PCoLAP (2020), from 2011 to 2020, 56,733 rural laborers were trained in this project, achieving 93.3% of the goal set by the local government. The first phase's target completion rate (2011–2015) was 88.7%, lower than that for the second phase's (100.5%). PCoLAP (2020) commented that in the first phase, rural laborers did not really believe in the project's effectiveness, but after news spread of the project's success, more participants were attracted. Similarly, interviewee T3 added that “…enrollment in the early stages faced many difficulties due to the low demand for vocational training registration.”

Moreover, according to the project governing body, there were 3,373 (9.4%) participants who did not finish the training (Table 4). PCoLAP (2020) claimed that this was due to the overriding necessity of some rural laborers to provide for their families. For example, interviewee T4 commented: “…the number of learners cannot be maintained during the course due to their livelihood conditions.” The outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic at the end of 2019 was another reason for some dropouts, as was confirmed by the results of our survey and interviews; this was especially important for workers from poor households.

Table 4.

Results of the Project Implementation at Level 2 over 10 Years.

Period	Participants	Participants from poor households	Participant Completion Rate	Participants finding jobs (after one year)	Participants escaping from poverty (after one year)
2011–2015	32,716	2,420	31,278	27,719 (84.73%)	615 (25.41%)
Agricultural profession	21,909	1,728	20,911	19,114 (87.24%)	409 (23.67%)
Non-agricultural profession	10,807	692	10,367	8,605 (79.62%)	206 (29.77%)
2016–2020	24,017	1,506	22,082	21,741 (90.52%)	36 (2.39%)
Agricultural profession	17,039	1,276	15,522	15,255 (89.53%)	30 (2.35%)
Non-agricultural profession	6,978	230	6,560	6,486 (92.95%)	06 (2.61%)
Total 2011–2020	56,733	3,926	53,360	49,460 (87.18%)	651 (16.58%)
Agricultural profession	38,948	3,004	36,433	34,369 (88.24%)	439 (14.61%)
Non-agricultural profession	17,785	922	16,927	15,091 (84.85%)	212 (22.99%)

Source: PCoLAP (2020).

Tables 1 and 4 show that the number of participants learning in agricultural professions exceeded the project's target (112%), while non-agricultural professions accounted for only 68% of the original target. This demonstrates that since long-standing farming practices affect people and the community's choice of occupation and their choice of training profession. Rural laborers are familiar with the agricultural economy and do not easily change occupations (PCoLAP, 2020). As T4 and T8 added, they thought they could directly apply the training to their household economy if they could not find a job.

Another interesting finding from our survey was that the 300 participants from poor households tended to learn at short-term vocational training classes rather than long-term one (Table 2); this can be explained by the financial aid policy of the project, such as full financial aid for tuition, meals, and travel expenses for short-term classes. This demonstrates that offering financial assistance is an effective means of enticing people to participate in these projects or programs (Miotto et al., 2019). Overall, over 10 years of implementation, this project contributed to enhancing the rate of trained workers in the province from 50% in 2010 to 71% in 2020 (PCoLAP, 2020). The project's results at the provincial level (level 2) are presented in Table 4, and the project's results at the district level (level 3) are shown in Table 5.

Table 5.

Results of the Project Implementation at Level 3 over 10 Years.

District/city	Period	Participants	Participants from poor households	Participant Completion Rate	Participants finding jobs (after one year)	Participants escaping from poverty
Tan An	2011–2015	1560	121	1542	1353	32
Tan An	2016–2020	1230	54	1090	1128	3
Ben Luc	2011–2015	2480	154	2345	2135	39
Ben Luc	2016–2020	1625	112	1503	1502	3
Duc Hoa	2011–2015	2430	143	2312	2087	42
Duc Hoa	2016–2020	1702	123	1606	1557	3
Can Duoc	2011–2015	2425	156	2356	2102	38
Can Duoc	2016–2020	1654	134	1517	1487	4
Can Giuoc	2011–2015	2412	148	2337	2097	36
Can Giuoc	2016–2020	1698	114	1520	1548	3
Duc Hue	2011–2015	2342	195	2251	2003	52
Duc Hue	2016–2020	1634	102	1523	1467	2
Thu Thua	2011–2015	1879	167	1798	1578	38
Thu Thua	2016–2020	1430	88	1312	1306	2
Thanh Hoa	2011–2015	2320	192	2249	1879	48
Thanh Hoa	2016–2020	1756	105	1609	1502	2
Tan Thanh	2011–2015	2130	187	2056	1798	47
Tan Thanh	2016–2020	1768	97	1650	1589	2
Moc Hoa	2011–2015	1987	188	1863	1603	44
Moc Hoa	2016–2020	1323	106	1245	1209	3
Kien Tuong	2011–2015	1864	151	1773	1589	35
Kien Tuong	2016–2020	1865	78	1720	1702	1
Tan Tru	2011–2015	1834	148	1786	1562	36
Tan Tru	2016–2020	1564	69	1403	1406	1
Vinh Hung	2011–2015	2670	177	2513	2209	46
Vinh Hung	2016–2020	1823	88	1734	1675	2
Tan Hung	2011–2015	2243	181	2154	1901	54
Tan Hung	2016–2020	1742	139	1625	1561	2
Chau Thanh	2011–2015	2140	112	1943	1823	28
Chau Thanh	2016–2020	1203	97	1025	1102	3
Total	2011–2015	32716	2420	31278 (95.60%)	27719 (84.73%)	615 (25.41%)
Total	2016–2020	24017	1506	22082 (91.94%)	21741 (90.52%)	36 (2.39%)

Source: PCoLAP (2020).

The Project's Effectiveness in Enhancing Rural Laborer Employment and Poverty Reduction in Long An Province

The Project's Employment Creation Effectiveness

In this project, PCoLAP (2011) aimed at a 75% rate of employment creation among the trained laborers. As Table 4 suggests, during the 2011–2020 period, PVTRL helped 49,460 participants obtain jobs after training, reaching 87.18% of participants and exceeding PCoLAP's target. This rate is similar to our survey results, that recorded a rate of 86% of participants finding a job after training.

With respect to why this project worked, according to interviewees T3, T6, T8, laborers found it easy to find a suitable job after training because the project's occupation training design was based on survey results identifying laborers’ vocational learning needs, job demands in the local market, and local socioeconomic conditions.

If we compare employment creation effectiveness among different groups of participants based on a T-test, there was a statistically-significant difference between two professional groups (agricultural and non-agricultural workers) (see Table 6). As shown in Table 6, those learning in agricultural professions are more likely to agree with the statement that they were able to find work after training (M = 4.18) than those learning in non-agricultural professions (M = 3.95). This means that participants learning agricultural professions were more likely to find a job than people learning non-agricultural professions. This was also explained by interviewees, T2 said:

“…there was a higher rate in employment creation effectiveness for agricultural workers than non-agricultural workers because, besides being recruited to work in cooperatives and agricultural companies, rural laborers learning agricultural professions could create jobs for themselves and their family members through restructuring of crops and animals and by using preferential loans to invest, expand production, develop the household economy and farms. Meanwhile, in order to get a job, people learning non-agricultural professions typically depend on recruitment by companies and factories in urban areas”.

Table 6.

Differences in Employment Creation by Profession Group.

Component	Profession groups	Frequency	Mean	Standard deviation	T-value	Degree of freedom	Significant value
Employment creation	Agricultural profession	212	4.18	.73	2.237	298	.026
Employment creation	Non-agricultural profession	88	3.95	.92	2.237	298	.026

The Project's Poverty Reduction Effectiveness

The current study examined the project's poverty reduction effectiveness in terms of three criteria. First, the project's official poverty reduction effectiveness was determined by the number of participants escaping poverty after participating in PVTRL, i.e., a participant's household classification result improved from poor to near-poor or above. Since 2016, the Vietnamese government has issued multidimensional poverty criteria with higher standards because, at that time, international organizations, countries, and academics all agree that using income criteria to measure poverty is inadequate. In essence, poverty means a lack of opportunities and difficulty accessing basic services in terms of health, education, information, and standard of living (Sumner, 2010; UNDP, 2013). Moreover, many countries used multidimensional poverty criteria to assess poverty instead of only using income criteria. These poverty measurement criteria were devised based on two criteria, comprising both household income as well as gaps in access to basic social services for households, such as health services, health insurance, education services, using fresh water, and electronic devices to access information. Therefore, to reinforce and explain in detail the project's poverty reduction effectiveness, these two criteria were also examined in our survey and are evaluated in this section.

As can be seen in Table 4, of the total of 56,733 people who have participated in PVTRL since 2011, 3,926 were from poor households, and of those, the project has helped 650 people (16.58%) out of poverty. The project governing body also reported an extremely significant difference in the poverty reduction rate between the two periods. From 2011 to 2015, 615/2,420 participants were out of poverty, accounting for 25.41% of the total, but this figure dropped to 2.39% (36/1,506) in 2016–2020. According to PCoLAP (2020), this gap is most likely due to the Vietnamese government's change of definition criteria for poor households, as mentioned above. Prior studies have also indicated that the number of poor households identified will change when measurement methods are changed (Kangas & Ritakallio, 2019), and poverty rate would increase when applying multidimensional poverty measurement criteria (Nam, 2020). However, our survey results showed a significantly higher rate of poverty reduction when compared with the PCoLAP report. Specifically, PCoLAP (2020) evaluated that in 2015 there were 909 people from poor households participating in PVTRL, and only 174 had escaped poverty, accounting for 19.21%. In contrast, the result of our survey of 300 samples from poor households who participated in PVTRL in 2015 showed a completely different picture, with 235/300 (78.3%) people leaving poverty within 5 years of joining in the PVTRL (Table 7).

Table 7.

Poverty Reduction Effectiveness by Household Classification (N = 300).

Participants’ household's classification results at the time of the survey	Frequency	Percent	Poverty reduction effectiveness
Poor household	65	21.7%	Stay in poverty
Near-poor household	123	41.0%	out of poverty
Average income household	102	34.0%
Above average income household	10	3.3%

The reason for this difference is that the project governing body conducted annual project reviews at the end of the year by synthesizing local government reports, and the 5-year and 10-year summary reports were also synthesized from these annual reports. This approach has the disadvantage of not taking into account the project's long-term effects. T6 argued “…laborers may easily get a job or self-employment only a short time after training; however, in order to escape from poverty, they need to improve their income and save for a long time”. Therefore, evaluating the project's poverty reduction effectiveness must consider the time factor (Barrientos, 2013).

We also further checked for differences among demographic variables in the project's poverty reduction effectiveness based on participants’ household classification. As Table 8 suggests, there was a statistically-significant difference between professional groups and forms of employment in improvement of participants’ household classification. Specifically, non-agricultural workers (85.23%) experienced a higher poverty reduction rate than did agricultural workers (75.47%) (x² (3, N = 300) = 73.090, p = <.005), and salaried employment (80.14%) helped rural laborers reduce poverty more effectively (76.73%) with x² (3, N = 300) = 18.390, p = <.005).

Table 8.

Chi-square Test Results between Demographic Variables and the Poverty Reduction Effectiveness based on Participants’ Households’ Classification Results (N = 300).

Demographic variables		Frequency of participants’ household's classification results at the time of the survey		Total	The poverty reduction rate	df	Significant value
Demographic variables		Stay in poverty Out of poverty		Total	The poverty reduction rate	df	Significant value
Profession groups	Agriculture profession	52	160	212	75.47%	3	<.001
Profession groups	Non-agriculture profession	13	75	88	85.23%	3	<.001
Forms of employment	Self-employment	37	122	159	76.73%	3	<.001
Forms of employment	Salaried employment	28	113	141	80.14%	3	<.001

Echoing the change to a multidimensional definition of poverty recently applied in Vietnam, this study further examined improvement in household income and level of access to social services among these participant groups. As Table 9 suggests, non-agricultural apprentices (M = 4.35, SD = 0.52) perceived themselves as having a greater ability to improve household income (t(298) = -3.74, −3 p = <.001) as did people in salaried employment (M = 4.24, SD = 0.76 (t(298) = -3.00, −3 p = <.003). In terms of access to social services, those same non-agricultural workers (M = 4.18) felt that they had attained improved access to social services (t(298) = −2.27, p < .05) compared to perceptions of agricultural workers (M = 3.99, SD = 0.05). Similarly, people in the salaried employment group (M = 4.20, SD = 0.59) felt that their access to social services had improved at a significantly different rate (t(298) = −3.79, p < .001) than did non-salaried workers (M = 3.91, SD = 0.71. As T4 and T7 explained, laborers learning non-agricultural professions usually obtain salaried employment in large companies that provide more stable income as well as social and health insurance that helps increase the level of participant access to social services, as suggested by multidimensional poverty criteria.

Table 9.

Independent Sample T-test on Improvement in Household Income and Perceived Level of Access to Social Services with Reference to Profession Groups and Forms of Employment (N = 300).

Test variables	Grouping variables		Frequency	Mean	Standard deviation	T-value	Degree of freedom	Significant value
Improvement of household income	Profession groups	Agricultural profession	212	4.00	.82	−3.74	298	<.001
	Profession groups	Non-agricultural profession	88	4.35	.52	−3.74	298	<.001
	Forms of employment	Self-employment	159	3.98	.74	−3.00	298	<.01
	Forms of employment	Salaried employment	141	4.24	.76	−3.00	298	<.01
Improvement of household's level of access to social services	Profession groups	Agricultural profession	212	3.99	.05	−2.27	298	<.05
	Profession groups	Non-agricultural profession	88	4.18	.07	−2.27	298	<.05
	Forms of employment	Self-employment	159	3.91	.71	−3.79	298	<.001
	Forms of employment	Salaried employment	141	4.20	.59	−3.79	298	<.001

Overall, the three sources of information mentioned above showed that through PVTRL, “the quality of rural labor was improved. They were equipped with the necessary professional knowledge and skills to create jobs by themselves, and to apply knowledge, science and technology to production to obtain higher productivity”, as T7 explained in the interview. In addition, there is a pathway through which they can be recruited by companies, businesses, and cooperatives, assisting them in increasing their income, reducing poverty, and ensuring social security in rural areas (PCoLAP, 2020).

Stakeholders’ Satisfaction with PVTRL and Suggestions

Overall Satisfaction

Both project participants and teachers considered this to be a good policy; this project has brought many benefits to themselves and their families. In particular, participants felt satisfied with the project (M = 4.24) and guidance they received from the program officers during their participation (M = 4.27) (Table 10).

Table 10.

Participant Satisfaction with PVTRL (N = 300).

	Min-Max	Mean	SD
Satisfaction with PVTRL	2.6–5.0	4.24	.45
Receiving guidance from program officers	1.00–5.00	4.27	.68

In the 10-year summary report of project implementation, the project governing body commented that the project had a significant impact on improving socio-economic conditions not only of the participants but also of the locality (PCoLAP, 2020). Moreover, commenting on the socio-economic impact brought by the project (M = 4.02), the majority of participants agreed that the project helped them increase their income and significantly improve their living conditions by increasing access to social services (see Table 11). This satisfaction also seems to be widespread, as we found no statistically significant difference in participants’ satisfaction between different demographic variables based on the T-test.

Table 11.

Participant's Evaluation of Socio-Economic Impacts from the PVTRL Program (N = 300).

Dimensions	Min-Max	Mean	SD
The household's income increased significantly after participating in the project.	1.00–5.00	4.08	.74
The household's life condition has improved significantly after participating in the project.	1.00–5.00	4.10	.81
The household's level of access to social services (health services, health insurance, education services, using fresh water, electronic devices to access information) has improved significantly.	2.00–5.00	4.12	.64

As stated by interviewees, easy and convenient procedures also helped laborers access the project more easily. One interviewer noted “…laborers only need to have vocational training needs and a participation application in vocational training programs”, and that “the procedure was extremely simple because laborers were always provided with detailed and clear instructions from vocational training institutions and project staff”. According to the interview responses, “the project not only brought many benefits to rural laborers, but also helped vocational training institutions acquire more equipment for teaching, expanding the training scale and increasing teachers’ income, and helping teachers obtain opportunities to join in the training program to broaden their horizon,” T2 stated. Consequently, from these findings, it can be concluded that vocational teachers were also beneficiaries of PVTRL.

Satisfaction with the Funding Scheme: Strength, Limitations, and Suggestions

The program's financial aid strategy was identified as one of the main factors positively affecting PVTRL's effectiveness (Dũng, 2019). Participants stated that the project's financial aid policy was generally appropriate (M = 4.17).

In addition, interviewees said that PVTRL helped trainees and teachers feel secure about taking part in the project. “Public housing and a monthly mobile allowance were very important incentives for recruiting teachers,” T4 argued. Furthermore, the financial support strategy of tuition fees for all rural labor to attend short-term vocational training as well as additional aids such as meals and travel expenses for participants from poor households, quickly encouraged laborers to participate in the PVTRL.

Furthermore, preferential loans made available after training enabled some participants to become self-employed or expand their initial production and their business scale. These findings demonstrated that PVTRL's financial aid strategy for participants and teachers was one of the most important strategies contributing to the success of this project.

Regarding the limitations of PVTRL's funding scheme, participants and teachers indicated that the meal support policy was not updated to align with market prices. T8 commented: “…the fixed level of support from US$0.65 /day from the beginning of project implementation (2011) to the end of the project (2020) was not appropriate”. Participants and teachers also suggested that these policies should be modified accordingly, e.g., by increasing the preferential loan level for participants to enable them to expand production, or contribute to self-employment.

Participants furthermore argued that the lack of financial aid or preferential loans during the project's participation period prevented many people from poor households from participating in PVTRL because they needed the income to maintain their families. PCoLAP (2020) reported that only 3,926 of the total 20,964 people from the poor households of the province participated in this project, accounting for only 14.46%. In a similar vein, T5 argued “…due to their livelihood, they cannot temporarily stop working to take vocational classes.” Accordingly, participants and teachers suggested that the government issues financial aid policies to ensure the livelihood of learners’ families during the apprenticeship period.

The Strength and Limitation of PVTRL's Vocational Training

As the survey result suggests that on average, participants considered the project's vocational training quality to be good (M = 4.22); the main reasons given were that the training programs had a reasonable combination of theory and practice (M = 4.31), and provided necessary knowledge and skills for learners (M = 4.23). The occupations offered by the project were also felt to be in line with the needs of the market and local socio-economic conditions (M = 4.15). T3 stated that all training programs were based on the needs of laborers in each region as well as the socioeconomic conditions in which the vocational training classes were offered. The combination of theory and practice was the core of the training design. Moreover, classes were conducted according to a “learner-centered approach” to create a comfortable and free atmosphere, encourage learner engagement and promote their initiative. Additionally, offering training in participants’ neighborhoods was one of the advantages of the project. As T3 argued, “vocational training classes were usually held according to residential areas, or in craft villages, so laborers could easily participate.”

With respect to limitations, project participants and vocational teachers indicated that three aspects need further consideration and adjustment.

First, they felt that it was not appropriate to set the working age for participating in the project at 15–60 years of age for men and 15–55 for women, the result being the exclusion of a large number of idle laborers in rural areas beyond this age, while there was still a need for those in good health to participate in the project. Consequently, it is necessary to expand the program for those who are felt to be beyond working age to generate income, stabilize their lives, contribute to the implementation of lifelong learning policy, and build a learning society.

Second, although the agricultural profession group makes it easy for learners to get a job or themselves create a job, since their products are difficult to consume and their income has not improved, the government should promulgate policies to support the consumption of products after training, especially agricultural products.

Third, there is a lack of regulation of assessment and learning ability of learners prior to training; appropriate classes should be organized for each learner level to assist teachers in selecting appropriate teaching methods. To solve this problem, the government should revisit existing program regulations regarding the assessment and classification of learners before training.

Discussion and Conclusion

In contrast to previous PVTRL policy evaluations, this study incorporated a more comprehensive criteria with three sources of data from different stakeholders’ perspectives to provide a more comprehensive picture of the employment-creation and poverty-reduction effectiveness of the PVTRL with a long-term perspective. Specifically, in addition to traditional criteria like income, this study incorporated other measures to proxy the policy's effectiveness in poverty reduction, such as the household's life condition, the household's level of access to social services. Relevant stakeholder opinion was also collect to shed light on this issue from different perspectives. We also argue that instead of an annual survey, because some effects of the policy require time to emerge (Barrientos, 2013), policy evaluation should also take into account the policy's spillover effects and long-term effectiveness. Similarly, participants might also require more time to reflect on how the policy has transformed their lives as well as its limitations.

Our analysis shows that PVTRL achieved its initial goals of increasing the trained labor rate, as well as enhancing employment creation and poverty reduction for rural laborers, regardless of their sex and region of residence. This finding is in line with previous PVTRL policy evaluations of the project-governing body (PCoLAP, 2020) and previous studies on PVTRL project (Dũng, 2019; Nguyễn & Lê, 2014). These research findings are also similar to previous research findings on the effectiveness of VET in other contexts that have indicated that VET has important contributions to make to employment creation and poverty reduction (Lesley Powell, 2012; McGrath et al., 2018; Silwal & Bhatta, 2017).

However, it is worth noting that participants in the agricultural profession group achieved a higher employment creation rate but lower poverty reduction effectiveness than did non-agricultural professions. This occurred because the labor force is 4.5 times more productive in the non-agricultural sector than in the agricultural sector, and employment in non-agricultural areas is critical to sustaining income growth and improving rural-household lives (Liu et al., 2019). Indeed, after training, participants in agricultural professions frequently created their own jobs by expanding household production, while those who learned in non-agricultural professions usually achieved salaried employment in companies with higher incomes and greater access to social services. In other words, by adopting multidimensional poverty criteria and comparing the policy effect from different participant groups, this study provides a more comprehensive and realistic picture of poverty reduction result than the government's annual report (PCoLAP, 2020). Specifically, policy effect was perceived differently among different professional groups in varied poverty reduction indicators and further policy tweak is necessary to ensure better policy effect in the future. For example, priority should be given to low-income agricultural workers that have both comparatively lower income and limited access to social services compared to non-agricultural workers. Another issue is that despite the aforementioned gap, due to Vietnamese culture, rural laborers still have a tendency to want to learn agricultural professions and remain close to their ancestral homeland, family and villages with the idea of a “separation from farming, no separation from the homeland” (Hải, 2014). Accordingly, if a developing country wants to reduce poverty, it must simultaneously develop infrastructure in rural areas (Bardy et al., 2012), and encourage and adopt policies to support enterprises that expand production facilities to rural areas and help laborers obtain local jobs. Moreover, the government should establish policies to encourage and mobilize rural labor to move into non-agricultural areas, such as supporting rural laborers in purchasing social housing at work sites to stabilize their family life, and investing in building school systems in industrial zones to meet the educational needs of rural laborers’ children.

Our studies also found that offering vocational training classes in participants’ neighborhoods and providing complete financial aid for participants and teachers are highly effective ways to boost rural laborers’ participation in VET programs. Indeed, in previous studies on VET, the authors also indicated that convenience and financial support policies for participants are two key factors contributing to the learning of workers involved in VET projects (Dũng, 2019; Miotto et al., 2019). Other scholars also suppose that financial support is a key factor in projects success and its ability to attract more participants (Thắng, 2014). We therefore suggest that governments in developing countries should promote the following strategies. First, financial aid strategy should have timely adjustments based on market changes and should be equally implemented at all vocational training levels to attract rural laborers to participate in higher-level vocational training such as vocational colleges and vocational secondary schools. Second, to boost rural-labor participation and enthusiasm for vocational training, the government should provide financial aid and preferential loans to help rural laborers stabilize their livelihoods during their apprenticeship, better enabling their participation.

Since the countries in Southeast Asia share many common features, especially cultural traits and economic structures with a high proportion of rural workers without vocational training (Peou, 2016; SarDesai, 2018), this study's findings have potential implications for other countries in this region.

Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study

This study is not without limitations. First, although varied sources of data were used for triangulation, the use of a self-reported survey could make the result exaggerated or downplayed due to various biases such as desirability bias (Podsakoff et al., 2012). Second, although the present study applied the cluster sampling method, only 300 people from Long An province who took part in the project in 2015 were chosen. Consequently, expanding the sample size in future studies is necessary to enhance the generalizability of the findings. Third, the study has not considered the views of all stakeholders, such as owners of companies and cooperatives who can best assess the quality and performance of workers trained by the project. Finally, the current study only focuses on evaluation from level 2 and provides some data regarding level 3 and 4, and it would be better to include a different-level evaluation perspective, such as level 3, 4, and ROI.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

ORCID iD

Hoai Than Nguyen

Author Biographies

Chia Wei Tang is an associate professor in National Chengchi University, Taiwan. His work focuses on university rankings, higher education policy and governance.

Hoai Than Nguyen is a lecture in Tra Vinh University, Vietnam. His research interests include technology adoption, innovation, human intention and behavior, educational policy.

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