The General Department of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) reported that as of mid-February, roughly 20,000 people had enrolled for TVET programmes nationwide, while the target for all of 2023 is around 60,000.
Thorng Samon, deputy director-general of TVET under the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, said that since the start of the new academic year, the ministry has made many announcements to let all students, including freshly graduated grade 12 students and those from previous years, know to apply for scholarships.
“For this year, TVET plans to train about 60,000 students in technical skills according to the set national budget. We don’t have the exact number for the students that we have recruited as some schools haven’t started, but we have about 20,000 students enrolled,” he told The Post on February 15.
He noted that there were approximately 70,000 students who had been studying and had already graduated from TVET programmes over the years.
For 2021 and 2022, he said a total of 14,000 workers who had been affected by the Covid-19 crisis had also gone through four months of training, and that the ministry would continue this programme after making an agreement with the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
“TVET is important. Our youths should turn to study skills rather than jumping into the market to look for jobs without learning any vocational skills, or aim only for higher education [and overlook] short course skills,” he said.
On February 15-16, the ministry’s National Employment Agency (NEA), in collaboration with the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC) and seven major companies, organised two days of job interviews, giving 600 employment opportunities to youths and job seekers.
The job interview programme was held at the NEA on the ministry compound. CMED Construction was providing 35 positions while six other companies – Mekong Net, AEON Cambodia, SVI, Wing Bank, JACCS and Hattha Bank – provided a total of 566 positions.
Human Resource Manager of AEON Mall Cambodia Srey Somchaya said the NEA has contributed to helping his company recruit employees.
He noted that about 40 per cent of his staff members were recruited through the NEA at these events.
