Catalog

Have Skills, Can Work
Livelihood training and microcredit are boosting incomes—and changing lives

By Marcia R. Samson (csamson@adb.org)
Editorial Coordinator

Ontho Li stands on one leg and crutches while gathering empty soda cans from the Old Market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. At the end of the day, he returns to his home: the sidewalk. Scavenging is his only source of income since a landmine in Kampong Cham Province ended his career as a government soldier in 1989. He earns about 2,000 riels (US$0.50) a day, which must support his pregnant wife and four children.

Mr. Li says he has no permanent job because he has no ability other than handling a rifle. Overwhelmed with despair, he allows himself to remain a victim.

Skills Bring New Meaning to Lives

Unlike Mr. Li, others have been improving their lives by learning new livelihood skills. The Basic Skills Project, a US$20 million effort funded by the Asian Development Bank, is striving to rebuild the country’s pool of skilled workers, many of whom were killed or fled during the genocide of the late 1970s.

The Project is targeting those most adversely affected by the decades of civil strife, including landmine victims, widows, orphans, school dropouts, the disabled, heads of households, eldest children of families, women in general, and other disadvantaged people. Even illiterates can enroll in some of the courses.

The successes have been gratifying.

Thirty-five-year-old Soeun Bun grabbed the opportunity of free skills training at the provincial training center in Kampong Cham. She had been working in a textile factory until a heart attack forced her to quit. When she saw an advertisement on a street corner, she decided to enroll in a four-week sewing course. She calls the course her chance of a lifetime to earn enough to support her widowed mother and sister.

Working out of her home, she has developed a regular clientele and earns about US$10 per job for sewing women’s dresses and uniforms for students and soldiers. Her priceless possession is a second-hand sewing machine that she bought for US$60, funded through a US$600 microcredit loan that she and three of her classmates shared.

Twenty-four-year-old Yourk Pisey is also head of the household. She employs two assistants at US$12 monthly to sew fancy lace and beads on Thai-inspired dresses and gowns worn during festivals. In a month she earns US$200—significantly more than the average monthly wage rate of US$75. “The television, radio, and motorcycle are the fruits of her labor,” her mother proudly says.

Sim Senghong recently set up his motorcycle repair shop along a narrow dirt road leading to the market in the Chong Thinol commune. Tired of driving a motorcycle on rough roads for a measly US$1.25 a day, he enrolled in a motor repair training course. Now he earns 10 times more from his shop. He has bought an air compressor and some tools, and still sets aside US$50 a month to repay his portion of a US$500 microcredit loan.

In Siem Reap Province, computer training has proven the most popular of the courses, which include tailoring, wood carving, and motor repair. About 300 people—including a hundred Buddhist monks—are on the waiting list for a computer training course. The first offering of the course only accommodated 20 people. Interest is strong for learning computer skills because of the job opportunities in hotels, restaurants, and other service industries in the province, which is home to the world renowned Angkor Wat.

Overcoming Obstacles

The participants’ determination has been impressive. On a borrowed bicycle, Chan Hoeun pedals 5 kilometers from her relatives’ house to the Siem Reap training center to attend her tailoring class. “Life is difficult,” says the young woman. “My husband earns US$2 a day as a driver and there is hardly enough food on the table and money to send my children to school.” She relies on relatives’ support to get her family through the day, but she hopes her new skills will make her dream of better lives for her children come true.

Public response to the ADB-funded courses has been very gratifying, says Phang Puthy, Director of the Siem Reap training center. Several students temporarily live in pagodas near the center, some walk several kilometers, and others live with relatives.

Initially, some resistance occurred for women to attend the skills training, says Pich Sophoan, Project Director of the education component and Director General of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. It was difficult to convince parents to allow their daughters to attend training because of their home responsibilities, the distance to the training venue, or safety reasons. Some husbands feared their wives would be forced into prostitution. Sometimes the reason is psychological on the part of men, who think that women are not smart enough to understand and acquire skills.

To resolve these barriers, TVET staff went out to the people to inform them of the equal opportunities for training open to men and women. In some training centers, accommodations are provided so women can train uninterrupted without having to worry about safety and transport costs.

Huo Reth’s husband, a farmer, did not oppose her leaving her seven children to attend the weaving course at the Women in Development Center in Kampong Cham. For four months, she stayed at the center to save her US$0.80 daily for a round-trip transportation cost from her house, 10 kilometers away. She looks forward to setting up her weaving business at home, where she can look after her children. By weaving a piece of seung (skirt material) and krama (scarf), she estimates she can easily earn US$50.

NEW SKILLS: Thousands of Cambodians are learning livelihood skills.

Today, more women are being trained in the vocational training centers. Of 6,673 trainees, 52 percent are women, according to Mr. Sophoan. Nearly 2,000 of the graduates—about 70 percent—have found jobs. About 550 persons have received microcredit; 66 percent of them women.

COMPUTER CRAZE: 300 people are on the waiting list for computer training.

Aside from the basic income-generating skills training, the Project has also upgraded the capacities of high-ranking officers, school directors, and instructors through overseas fellowship training on the educational system, focusing on vocational education and training, computer use, planning and management, and English language skills.

The National Training Board, comprising various ministries involved in training activities, has also been created under the Project to provide policy and planning guidance in skills training, in coordination with the private sector, funding agencies, and nongovernment organizations. Physical facilities of national technical institutes and provincial training centers are also being upgraded to improve the working environment.

The vision is to develop skills at par with international standards, particularly with Cambodia’s counterpart countries in Southeast Asia, says Mr. Sophoan. Skills training also aims to increase the ranks of the employed, estimated at 5 million out of the 11 million Cambodians, of which less than 1 percent are graduates of higher education.

With interest to develop the country’s most important resource—its people—through training and education, the social and economic resurgence of Cambodia may not be too far away.

Learn more about ADB's work in Cambodia

Learn more about ADB's Education Textbook Project in Cambodia

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