Japanese Infrastructure Ministry has launched model projects of providing special training course to overseas construction trainees before entering Japan. The number of technical trainees in construction sector is increasing as the Japanese government has begun a temporary measure to allow foreign workers who complete training in Japan to extend their stay and re-entry. The ministry intends to establish a scheme to develop capable trade workers by giving special training programs. The trainees are expected to become leaders at construction sites in their home countries when they return.

The ministry appointed four companies and bodies to conduct the training including Miyazaki Prefecture-based Earth Construction Consulting. The companies will receive a grant of up to two million yen each. Three of them will be based in Vietnam and the other in Myanmar.

Earth Construction Consulting provides programs on formwork to students of Vietnamese Construction Ministry’s Construction College in Ho Chi Minh. The firm will also help trainees find construction jobs at Vietnamese contractors when they return home. Tokyo-based construction material trader Nohara Sangyo has partnered with a vocational school in Vietnam, dispatching three engineers to teach interior finishing. (2015/09/18)