Though there has been impressive demand for trainees, 13 manpower agencies have supplied only 131 interns to 18 Japanese companies in the last two years. According to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), around three dozen agencies have received requests for 1,277 trainees. The figure includes requests for 12 trainees received by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

 

Manpower agencies assigned to send interns, however, said that they had not been able to send them due to procedural complications. Lately, Friendship International Employment Service, an authorised agency, has cancelled its plan to send 48 interns to a Japanese firm, Nagasaki Ken Management Support Association, after missing the deadline. 

 

The company requested the DoFE to cancel all the ongoing procedures which it has done after a necessary study. According to the DoFE, the manpower agency had received a request for 48 trainees (including 36 women) under the Japan International Training Cooperation Organisation (JITCO) programme. 

 

“Mainly, the documentation system is very complicated from receiving requests to obtaining the final approval,” said Som Lal Bataju, president of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies and chairman of SOS Manpower Service, an authorised agency for sending interns to Japan. 

 

Nepali recruitment agencies say finding eligible candidates as required by Japanese companies is difficult. As per the directive on sending technical interns to Japan, any aspiring intern must be working in an organization in Nepal that is related to the work to be done in Japan. Likewise, farm interns must have two years’ experience in a registered institution in the industry, cooperative or community based organisation. According to the DoFE, most of the requests coming from Japan are for fishery and agriculture.

 

Purna Chandra Bhattarai, director general at the department, said that the JITCO programme had not progressed as per expectations as the manpower agencies were still learning the ropes. “If you see the example of Vietnam, the programme took off only after five years,” he added. As the eligibility of the agencies to send interns to Japan expires in December, the DoFE will be selecting a new batch. The existing agencies will have to be renewed while would-be agencies have to apply to the DoFE.