A government-sponsored training project called "Sunshine Program" has helped 7.2 million Chinese rural laborers find jobs in non-farming sectors since 2004, Vice Minister of Agriculture Wei Chao'an said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a symposium in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Wei pointed out that by the end of October, 8.3 million rural laborers had taken training courses on work skills in such industries as manufacturing, construction and service, with 86.7 percent of them finding new jobs.

In 2004, six ministries, including ministries of agriculture, finance and education, launched the Sunshine Program to offer professional training to rural laborers to teach them how to cope in an urban setting and to protect their basic rights.

Under the program, each trainee is given a subsidy for training expenses, which were 100 yuan (US$12.5) per person in 2004 and now 171 yuan.

Most of the trained laborers secured at least year-long job contracts that paid an average of 833 yuan a month. This average salary is 200 yuan more than that of untrained rural workers, and 400 yuan more than what farmers earn, according to 2005 statistics from 50 counties.

Over the past three years, the program has received funding worth 1.25 billion yuan from the central government and more than 1.5billion yuan from provincial governments.

China has 490 million rural laborers, only 13 percent of whom are educated up to or above senior middle school level.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)