7 February 2004
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- Excellencies, Louk Chum Teov, Ladies and Gentlemen;
- H.E Mr. Lee Hangon, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Cambodia;
- National and international distinguished guests;
- Dear Participations;
Today, I am very delighted to have a chance to participate in the National Workshop on Development of Vocational Training System in Cambodia which I consider that this seminar is very crucial in operating the National Cambodia-Korea Vocational Training School in the future.
On behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia and on my own behalf; I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for the efforts of Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen and the concerned institutions and Ministries for actively participating in the process of establishing the National Cambodia Korea Vocational Training School smoothly which a result of friendship binding and cooperation between Cambodia and Korea under the intelligent leadership of Samdech HUN SEN, Prime Minister of the Royal Government of Cambodia during the second mandate.
I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation for playing and fulfilling the roles and tasks given by the Royal Government on constructing the said School, achieving our planned result.
I have the honour to present to Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen that the Royal Government of Cambodia considers the Vocational Training System as a prioritized field among other fields and be included as part of the 2003-2005 National Poverty Reduction Strategy of the Royal Government. Thus, Vocational Training System in Cambodia plays a vital role for human resource development on techniques and skills that require specific project plan and system to meet the labour market demand for the present and long term future.
The National Cambodia-Korea Vocational Training School Project is one of the three cooperation projects between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Korea, which deems as a big and preliminary project to focus in serving the request for providing and upgrading vocational skills according to the international standards. After signing the Loan Agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Export-Import Bank of Korea on 5 June 2002, both parties have endeavored and well cooperated in which the Project Implementation Unit under the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation was established to execute the project effectively.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The challenge for leaders in the field of current technical and vocational training is related to the evolution of new labour force that is changed by attitudes and values and also related to the change of institution structure to assuring success in globalization competition era. The quality of training processes in technical and vocational institutions shall guarantee the trainee competition capacity in the labour market and also guarantee the trainees' skills and ability and meet the private needs. Technical and vocational institutions shall have competency in providing qualified training that can satisfy both trainees and employers to contribute developing the country.
Quality assurance is an important issue in competitive new world. Quality and quality assurance are two different concepts, though related to each other. " Quality" is related to the question " what " whereas " quality assurance " is related to the question "how". In the area of technical and vocational training-quality (or "what") is related to the training standard or competency, to the objective that shall be achieved through training or to the competency and level of smart that need to be fulfilled. where as quality assurance (or "how") focuses on framework of curriculum development, examination, management and training certification in order to achieve the objectives and training standards.
The Royal Government in its second mandate under the leadership of Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen always takes quality matter as an important one and include in management mechanism. The previous policy reform such as good governance, decentralization, reform in arm forces, justice and economy etc. are measures to assure the said quality. Recently, in order to assure the training quality in higher education, the Royal Government has established a Committee for Educational Accreditation of Cambodia which is an institution has a vital role for higher educational accreditation in Cambodia. These days, the technicians and experts of Committee for Educational Accreditation of Cambodia have been developing frameworks and criteria to serve this mechanism. Though, it is a very new work for us, yet some countries do not have, but our government has started and being implemented subsequently which is a part of the whole mechanism that I have just presented.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen;
The absence of a national system for technical and vocational quality recognition in Cambodia at present has made us face a problem of how training quality shall be assured-increasing suggestion by market today that require trainees finishing technical and vocational institution with high ability in order to participate in production, and services which modernized in technical evolution; emerging the necessity and importance of the unavoidable quality assurance system. In the future, technical and vocational institutions will challenge the pressure from private companies and professional organization demanding capacity standard improvement for any professional. The evaluation or vocational recognition of technical and vocational institutions will depend on the basic of vocational quality assurance.
To start with the above situation I understand that we need to have an educational, technical and vocational quality recognition system. I would like to encourage an inter- ministerial working group that has been doing this work, to quickly fulfill and submit to the Royal Government for examination and adopt because it is also a part that will complete the reform mechanism of Cambodian vocational quality.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Of the totally 12 million population, we have 5 million labour forces, among that 3.5 million obtain primary level education and illiterate, and unskilled and those people are the labour forces to serve our whole society. The rise of annual labour forces, evolution of new technology in production, labour market competition and production, require the improvement of the development in quantity and quality, technician and our skilled workers. The two main aims of vocational training are: firstly is to provide vocational skills to people in order to get jobs in establishments and enterprises in the country and overseas and secondly to make our people becoming knowledgeable people with skills that they are able to run their own business in the community and generate additional income for their families. In the time of Cambodia accesses to international globalization, the need of human resources is very large.
The objective of this National Workshop is to get your experiences, ideas who are the local experts combining with the experiences on developing vocational training from the Korean experts in the following trades such as CAD-CAM, Industrial Facility, Automobile, Electricity, Electronics, Information Technology, Electronic Measurement and control, Architectural Design and Construction, Tourism and Hotel Management, Cookery in which the National Cambodia-Korea Vocational Training School will in charge, will be compiled as a vocational training system in response to our suggestions. Meanwhile, the workshop will also exchange School's Strategy - Policy Management and School Management Plan because these are the sustainable issues.
On these issues, let me share some experiences and recommendation as follows : In the second mandate of the Royal Government, Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen has advised that in building all policies, quality assurance shall be insisted and also assure the sustainability. The development without sustainability will cause problems or difficulties to our people of the next generation. I have presented to the Workshop of the measures related to quality assurance. Now I am going to share some of my experiences in relation with sustainability assurance.
In order to assure the sustainability in development I think that we have to pay attention to some necessarily factors such as : Human Resource Development (HRD), Decentralization, Good Governance, encouragement in self-financial support, partnership and leadership. I hope when the workshop discussing and exchanging ideas to develop strategy for this vocational training school, you will take into consideration to some of the factors which I have pointed out above in order to assure the sustainability.
Another issue that I think it is very important especially, is to create a learning culture in our institution, to become a learning organization. Only such way that can lead our organization toward the winning in the competitive globalization. I consider that today workshop is a class that we have been doing and will continue doing to enlarge this learning culture. In this class I hope that you will share experiences, valuable knowledge in cooperation spirit to develop our Cambodian society toward prosperity.
Once again, I would like appreciate the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation in organizing this important workshop and I am firmly convinced that this National Workshop will provide fruitful result because we have experts from the concerned Ministries and institutions especially, the expert from Korea.
Finally, may I wish Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests and participants with the five Buddhist wishes of longevity, caste, healthiness, strength and success, and may I wish this workshop to proceed smoothly and successfully. I would like to declare this National Workshop opened.