The Veterans Affairs Council (VAC) is to expand on-the-job training services for military personnel to improve their lives after retirement, VAC Minister Lee Hsiang-jow (李翔宙) said yesterday.
A planned pension reform for military personnel has sparked concern among veterans, as cuts to entitlements aim to return the National Pension Fund from the brink of bankruptcy.
In an interview with the Central News Agency, Lee said the VAC is committed to the care of veterans.
Photo: CNA
After taking over the council last year, Lee said he has studied military personnel retirement and pension systems in various countries, including the US, Australia, France, Japan and China, in a bid to provide higher quality services.
The council would help veterans find employment by expanding vocational training during their military service.
In the past, the council provided only 71 on-the-job training courses each year.
The number of vocational training courses is to be expanded to 500 next year, Lee said.
Each course would be no less than 72 hours with a focus on tourism, technology, information security and long-term care services to make it easier for veterans to find work, Lee said.
With Taiwan’s society aging rapidly, the nation needs many workers in long-term care services, Lee said, adding that the council is scheduled to open its first long-term care training course in the middle of next month.
During the initial phase, 30 student placements will be made available.
Veterans are expected to train in long-term care services so that they can enter the industry after retirement, Lee said.
The council is also to provide assistance to those who want to undertake further studies after retirement, Lee said.
The council is seeking a minimum monthly pay of NT$40,000 for veterans, which exceeds the NT$32,160 minimum monthly pay for civil servants and public-school teachers.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said the government aims to encourage military personnel to stay in their jobs for longer to receive higher pensions based on seniority.
If the government takes care of veterans, more people are likely to sign up for military service, Lee said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods