Mayor Chu: Technical and vocational education will be led by the City Government
On 11th of December, Mayor Eric Chu announced that High Schools in New Taipei City will be under the City Government’s jurisdiction next year. Due to the hight unemployment rate, the government found out the education policies couldn’t match with the market’s demand, so the government must reformed the situations to lower the unemployment rate.
Chu paid respects to the victims in the car accident in Hsinchu in the beginning of city government conference, and instructed the related bureaus of New Taipei City to learn and review the mistakes from the accident. Now not only the large- and medium-size tour buses would undergo inspections, but also the road conditions on the tourist attractions and mountains in New Taipei needed to be reexamined.
Labor Affairs Department reported that improve the unemployment issue, the government must focus on the labor safety, relations, inspection, employment rate and job training. Chu indicated that all of those stated above are important, especially the labor safety, because most of the accidents occur on the construction industry each year. The rights of labor inspection will be released to the city government on January, 2013, and it will be a great help for the city government to increase the inspection frequency and ensure the labor safety.
Labor and manager relations is as particular about the cooperation, and the labors are always considered vulnerable on cognitive, but both sides must stick together to face the economic difficulties. On raising the employment rate, Chu indicated that he saw a slogan on an advertising banner for nurse hiring which really moved him: “We won’t accept the NT$22,000 salary per month; we are worth at least NT$45,000, because we deserve it.” He said that this is the phenomenon of imbalance in supply and demand, and the education was not suppose to make the students face the NT$22,000 in salary or unemployment after graduate from schools.
Starting January 1, 2013, high schools and vocational high schools in New Taipei City will be controlled by the city government. According to the employment market demand, the government would decide which subject should be added and how many students should be in one class. For example, the daycare center that recently developed by the government was short on nursing staffs, so the nursing related subjects could be added to the list to boost the employment rate.
In addition, Labor Affairs Department will need to cooperate with the educational units for professional job trainings. New Taipei City may not have a big training building as the Taipei City does, but the professional training courses could be set up in several collages and high schools. It is important for the related departments to cooperate with each other so that the cooperation will not only make good use of the space and teaching resources from schools, but also make the subjects connected to the industries and lower the unemployment rate.