Training project to ease social worker shortage

Children in northern Ha Nam receive Vitamin A. The Government has approved the National Programme for Children for 2011-15, which includes a project to improve the quality of staff working in child protection and other social services. — VNA/ VNS Photo Ninh Duc Phuong

HA NOI — The shortage of professional social workers has triggered the Government to begin training staff that specialise in protecting vulnerable children across the country.

Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam said social work contributes to social development and several countries around the world attach special attention to training social workers.

"Social work is still new in Viet Nam," said Dam. "Professional social worker training has only begun very recently."

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs are working on a project to train more social workers.

The VND464 billion (nearly US$25 million) project aims to help all social workers improve their management skills and increase the child protection programmes' efficiency.

The project also targets to increase 50 per cent of the social workers skills and collaborators at the commune and hamlet level. While there were 160,000 collaborators at hamlets and villages in 2007, the figure has dropped to about 7,000.

According to the ministry's report, the country does not have enough professional social workers who are able to uncover, intervene and support children with special circumstances or children who are vulnerable to exploitation.

The report says there are more than 12,000 social workers, but a majority of them do not work full time. There are currently about 7,000 collaborators and volunteers working in the child protection sector.

In accordance with the project, the ministry will ask the Government to grant social allowances to collaborators that are equivalent to 10 per cent of the country's minimum wage, which is VND730,000 a month.

The ministry estimates that there are more than 23.6 million children in the country, of which more than 4 million are living in special or impoverished circumstances. These children need help from the community and social workers.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the National Programme on Children Protection for the 2011-2015 period. The programme aims to reduce the existing number of children living in special circumstances to less than 5.5 per cent of the total number of children.

A 10-year national programme on the development of social work was approved as well.

The programme aims to develop a legal framework for social work development, to increase professional social workers' knowledge and skills, to improve social services and increase public awareness about the profession.

According to the plan, 35,000 social workers would be trained and 25,000 Government staff members would be provided with social work training before 2020.

Dam said the country needs more than 10,000 social work professionals who have university degrees. — VNS

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Social work alleviates poverty

Yesterday, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), Atlantic Philanthropies Organisation in Viet Nam and UNICEF signed a memorandum to define the roles and responsibilities of the partners taking part in the project. The memorandum concerns capacity building for MOLISA for partnership development, increasing policy makers' awareness, improving social work services and promoting a sound network of social workers. Accordingly, MOLISA will contribute a counter-fund worth US$560,000 during the 2010-14 period. Atlantic Philanthropies Organisation in Viet Nam will provide $1.2 million during the same period, and UNICEF will contribute $400,000 next year.

QUANG NINH — Social work development plays an important role in alleviating poverty, addressing complex social problems and promoting social justice and equality in Viet Nam, said Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

She highlighted social work's vital role in society during the opening session of a two-day conference to launch the newly-approved national programme on the development of social work until 2020.

It is high time social work should become a profession because the increasing population and the emergence of new alarming social issues have made the traditional forms of social care inadequate, she said.

Ngan said lessons learnt from other countries had shown that adequate and sustainable social protection could not be attained without a system of professional social workers, whose important role was to protect vulnerable groups.

United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative Lotta Sylwander said the Government's decision to approve the development of social work was very timely. She expressed her belief that in the coming years social work services would be in place to provide support to vulnerable groups.

Minister Ngan said the 10-year programme aims to develop a legal framework for the development of social work, to increase the knowledge and skills of professional social workers develop social services and increase public awareness about the profession.

According to the plan, 35,000 social workers would be trained and 25,000 current Government staff members would be provided with social work training.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Trong Dam said the country would need more than 10,000 social work professionals who hold university degrees. — VNS

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