Leaving the countryside to find a job and returning to start a business
After nearly 4 years working as a worker in an industrial park in the North, Mr. Hoang Van Hung (27 years old, from Sin Thau commune, Dien Bien province) returned to his hometown with almost empty hands.
In years away from home, Hung's work is on a production line. Average income is about 10-12 million VND/month, overtime months may be higher. But in return are long working days, rent, living expenses and hundreds of kilometers of trips every time he visits his family.
In my hometown at that time, there were not many jobs to choose from. If you want to have a stable income, you have to go. I, like many friends of my age, finished high school and then went to the South or down to the delta provinces to work as a worker" - Hung shared.
The turning point came when Hung was propagated by local officials about vocational training programs, livelihood support and policy loans. Instead of continuing to find a job in industrial parks, he decided to learn oyster mushroom growing techniques and started building a model right in his hometown.
From policy loans and the money accumulated after years of working as a worker, Hung invested in a system of planting rigs, farming houses, and bags of seedlings. Up to now, his family has nearly 1,000m2 of oyster mushrooms with a solid iron suspension system. The model brings in hundreds of millions of VND in income/year.
Similarly, in Lai Chau, Tuyen Quang, and Son La provinces, most young people after graduating from high school choose to leave their hometowns to work in the southern provinces or make a living in Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Bac Ninh, posing a problem to help young people live by their profession right in their hometown.
Work must go hand in hand with the strengths of each locality
In many highland areas, tourism is becoming one of the fields with the clearest ability to create jobs on the spot.
According to leaders of Mu Cang Chai commune, Lao Cai province, where over 90% of the population is H'Mong ethnic people, tourism not only creates more livelihoods but also gradually changes people's awareness, skills and social approach.
Taking advantage of support policies, many young people boldly borrow capital to renovate their houses to make homestays and develop community tourism. From only being familiar with farm work, they began to learn how to welcome guests, cook, promote services, communicate and introduce local culture.
We also learned English to communicate with foreign tourists and participated in tourism training classes organized by the locality. People also mobilized each other to do well in raising buffaloes, cows, pigs, chickens, cleaning houses, planting flowers from the gate to each house for tourism. The house grounds are planted with many flowers and green trees, with beautiful miniatures to serve the check-in needs of tourists" - Mr. Giang A Trang (32 years old) expressed.
Accordingly, from a homestay, many different job positions can be formed, from room servers, cooks, tour guides, drivers, local product sellers to media professionals, photographers, and video recorders promoting destinations.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Ms. Luong Thi Hoa - Head of the Department of Labor and Employment, Lao Cai Provincial Department of Home Affairs - said that from the beginning of 2026 to now, the locality has created jobs for 20,114 people. Of which, from the socio-economic development program, there are 6,173 people; and at the same time supported 7,086 people to borrow capital from the National Employment Fund.
Ms. Hoa said that the forecasting of human resource needs needs to be carried out more closely with the socio-economic development planning of each locality.
Where tourism is developed, it is necessary to determine what job positions tourism needs. Where there is a border gate economy and logistics development, it is necessary to consider human resources for warehousing, import and export. In commodity agricultural production areas, it is necessary to train production, processing and trade techniques" - Ms. Hoa analyzed.
This is considered an important direction to solve the employment problem for Northwest workers. Localities need to map human resource needs by region, by economic sector, and even by investment project.
