Cambodia's TVET breaks barriers, 5% become entrepreneurs

Sreekanth Ravindran | Khmer Times

CAMBODIA. Khmer Times (10 November 2023) - The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) National Policy by the Cambodian Government has been a boon for many underprivileged sections including dropouts, ethnic minorities, women and youths living with disabilities across the country with five percent of the students, who successfully completed the programme, becoming entrepreneurs, a recent study carried out by the Cambodian Education Forum (CEF) says.

Referring to Cambodian Qualifications Framework skill evaluation surveys of TVET graduates, the CEF said 17.8 percent of students became managers and specialists; 45 percent became technicians, and 13.18 percent became mechanics while 19.22 percent work in professions unrelated to their expertise.

In Cambodia, TVET operates under four key objectives, as stated in the 2017-2025 National TVET Policy. The first one aims to improve TVET quality in order to meet national and international market demands and the second objective focuses on increasing equitable access to TVET for employment generation.

While the third one aims at promoting public-private partnerships and aggregate resources from stakeholders to support TVET’s sustainable development the fourth one calls for improving the TVET system governance.

The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MoLVT) has been tasked with running TVET initiatives since 2005. The MoLVT, under its jurisdiction, now has 104 TVET-recognised institutions, comprising 37 governmental institutes, 41 private institutes, and 26 nonprofit organisations that provide technical and vocational training in 25 capital city or provinces.

According to Cambodian Education Forum, TVET institutes in the Kingdom offer short and long-term training at eight levels for trainees, students, youth, and the general public, including four certificate programmes, an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a doctoral degree.

To conquer all of the challenges associated with establishing a robust TVET system, Cambodia needs to fully implement its national TVET policies, the CEF observed.

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