Cambodia: Education & Skills
Over 58 million children all over the world cannot attend school despite their indisputable right to education. In many countries, school tuition is denied to children due to armed conflicts, poverty, humanitarian disasters or simply due to educational systems which practice gender-related, ethnic or medical condition discrimination.
Illiterate or poorly educated young people lacking practical skills are vulnerable to poverty and exploitation because there is no demand for them in the labour market. Therefore they have very limited freedom when making decisions about their own lives. This presents challenges with extreme urgency in view of the fact that there is a record number of young people in the world and limited options for creating new jobs.
People in Need actively attempts to tackle these global challenges. We must realise what an important role education plays in the transformation process of developing countries. Not only does it improve prospects of employment, thereby reducing the risk of poverty, hunger and illness, but it also increases the potential of men and women to fight against discrimination. It motivates them to more actively participate in public life and promotion of their interests in society. We also believe that in areas stricken by armed conflict, attending school brings some order and also happiness into the lives of children.
- Our educational programmes aim to provide quality primary education for all children regardless of origin, religious belief, gender or medical condition.
- We also assist with employment of young people. Through vocational education and training in entrepreneurial and other skills we assist them in establishing a business or finding a job.
- Through our educational programmes we also encourage young people to actively engage in public life around them and assist them towards the creation of a responsible, democratic society.
Past aid programmes
Partnership for Employment and Skills Development (PESD)
The PESD project aims to develop a new technical program (agro-food processing) for the technical students at National Vocation Institute of Battambang (NVIB) to improve economic and employment situation by strengthening the quality of secondary technical and vocational education and training and building partnership between NVIB and private sector. PESD is initially designed to: (i) improve TVET program quality to meet national and international market demands; (ii) increase equitable access to TVET education for enhancing employment generation; (iii) promote Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) between institution and private sector, and relevant partner institutions and (iv) improve the governance of TVET system.
The project aims to enable equal access to relevant technical education for youths to seize decent employment opportunities and foster the growth of the agro-processing industry in Cambodia.
Fostering the Transition to Employment for Youth (FTE 4 Youth)
PIN is implementing the project in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training (MLVT), the Provincial Department of Labor and Vocational Training (PDLVT), the Provincial Training Centre (PTC), the International Labor Organisation (ILO), and numerous micro-finance institutes and industry associations. The FTE 4 Youth project, which is being piloted at the PTC in Kampong Chhnang, is staffed by 28 employees – including technical teachers and managers – and has enrolled 2,000 students. Course include mobile vocational training and other activities.
The project aims to improve the quality of technical vocational education within the PTCs, ensuring that courses, equipment and infrastructure are responsive to the demands of the labor market, thereby increasing young people’s participation in the TVET. It will also strive to foster entrepreneurship and build stronger partnerships between PTCs, the private sector, government agencies and other departments, ultimately resulting in new job opportunities for youths.
