BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 42.5 million Chinese rural workers received professional training in 2009, up 7.6 percent from the previous year and 42 percent higher than the yearly target, the Chinese Ministry of Education said Tuesday.

About 7.91 million workers were trained in cities they work in after migrating from rural areas, accounting for 18.8 percent of the total, while the rest were schooled in their hometown provinces, the Ministry said.

After the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 when exports contracted and jobs vanished overnight, the Chinese government has increasingly emphasized the importance of rural worker training in a bid to improve worker's job skills and to prepare the country for industry upgrading, the ministry said.

In southwest China's Tibet, training covered housekeeping services, traditional painting, solar energy applications and TV set maintenance which are closely linked with the local economy.

In east China's Zhejiang Province, rural young people not enrolled at senior high schools have access to a 6 to 12-month training course to give them horticultural and general farming skills.