Level of support for participating in assessment and issuance of national vocational skills certificates for workers

Legal Consulting Office of Lao Dong Newspaper answers:

Article 26 of Decree 138/2026/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Employment on professional skills development (effective from April 7, 2026), stipulates the content and level of support for participating in the assessment and issuance of national professional skills certificates as follows:

1. Employees who are one of the subjects specified in Clause 3, Article 22 of the Employment Law are supported to participate in the assessment and issuance of national vocational skills certificates, including:

a) Supporting requests for issuance and re-issuance of national vocational skills certificates, with a maximum support level of 300,000 VND/person/time;

b) Support for food and living expenses in the actual time of participating in the national vocational skills assessment is 50,000 VND/person/day;

c) Supporting travel expenses for workers from their current residence to the national vocational skills assessment location according to the following norms: 200,000 VND/person/trip and return for workers residing 15 km or more from the assessment location; 300,000 VND/person/trip and return for workers residing in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions 5 km or more from the assessment location;

d) Supporting service fees for participating in national vocational skills assessment according to the actual revenue of the national vocational skills assessment organization, the maximum support level is 4,000 VND/person/time according to each national vocational skill level of each profession.

2. Support funds for participating in national vocational skills assessment are allocated from the state budget according to the current budget decentralization, support funds from organizations, individuals, businesses and other legal mobilized and sponsored sources. In case local socio-economic conditions are guaranteed, the Provincial People's Committee shall submit to the Provincial People's Council to decide on a higher level of support than the level of support specified in Clause 1 of this Article.

3. Employees who are one of the subjects specified in Clause 3, Article 22 of the Employment Law are only supported once according to the policies specified in Clause 1 of this Article.

Thus, from April 7, 2026, workers will receive the above support when participating in the assessment and issuance of national vocational skills certificates.