Postponement of language proficiency test affects Vietnamese workers traveling to Japan

Pham Duc Vuong, deputy director of Hanoi-based Hoang Long Investment Construction and Manpower Supply JSC (Hoang Long CMS), said his company now had to suspend efforts to help 15 people who had applied for a program to work as trainee caregivers. in Japan.

To qualify for the program, they must pass Level 4 (4Q) of the NAT Japanese Language Test or N4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), as 15 Hoang Long CMS trainees have already registered for a language next month. , although it was postponed.

The Ministry of Education sent a circular to localities across the country on Nov. 8, announcing that institutions holding Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English language proficiency exams in Vietnam must suspend operations pending official permission to proceed.

The NAT-Test is held in even months while the JLPT is held twice a month in July and December.

For now, the NAT-Test organizer has said it will be suspended until next February while it is unclear when the JLPT will resume.

Vuong said getting the certificate is the first step in the process to work as interns in Japan.

It takes about four months from when applicants receive the paper to when they are sent to work in Japan, and with the exam postponed, the whole process will be delayed.

Although the company and the workers are concerned, they can do nothing but wait, he said.

Nguyen Xuan Lanh, deputy director of HCMC-based Esuhai Co., Ltd, which sends about 12,000 Vietnamese workers to Japan following the internship program, said the sudden suspension of Japanese language proficiency exams has had a significant impact on export workers.

He specifies that the company generally makes the trainees apply for the JLPT and that if the test is not organized in December, they will have to wait until next July.

Kim Hoa, who oversees worker recruitment for a company that sends mechanical workers to Japan, said 10 trainees were unable to obtain the N5 certificate despite registering for the test.

Nguyen Gia Liem, deputy head of the overseas labor management department of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Welfare, said workers going to Japan, depending on each industry and depending on whether whether or not the Japanese company requires a language certificate will be affected by the suspension of exams.

Those who are not affected by the language test can continue to Japan.

Japan instituted the Technical Training Internship Program in 1993 to facilitate the transfer of skills, technology and knowledge to developing regions.

More than 600,000 Vietnamese work in 50 countries and territories, including 250,000 in Japan, 230,000 in Taiwan and 40,000 in South Korea.