By Heidi Hagenlocher and Sam Rith
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 15 / 12, June 16 - 29, 2006
Sok Chea Kung is about to graduate from university, and like many of his classmates he's worried about finding a job.
Kung, 25, from Kampong Thom, is a fourth-year tourism major at the National University of Management (NUM). After high school, he worked for a year in a garment factory to save tuition money. Now, he's unsure if he'll find work once he earns his diploma.
"The job market here looks too narrow; it's very hard to get work," Kung said. "If I have a chance, I'd like to get a job in another country. But I don't think I'll have the opportunity."
Dorith Lay, 24, will graduate in two months. A fourth-year finance major at Build Bright University (BBU), Lay wants to get a job in a bank. He has already completed a two-month internship, but even with such experience he knows his chances are small.
Since Lay quit his job at a hotel last month his parents, banana farmers in Kampong Cham, have had to support him. Lay says if he cannot find a job related to finance, he'll try to work in a hotel again.
Chanvibol, 26, has been unemployed since he graduated in management from the National University of Management (NUM), in 2004. He lives with his parents in Phnom Penh. They pay for him to study English, a skill he hopes will help him land a job.
"Now, I do not mind what job I get. I just want to get some experience," Chanvibol said. "Since I graduated I have applied for many jobs, but I have never got any replies. To make my living, I help my uncle to clean his barbershop."
Roughly 8,000 students graduate each year from Cambodia's 47 colleges and universities, said Roth Sokha, director of the higher education department of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MEYS).
"Each year, our job market does not have enough places for those students who graduate," Sokha said.
In a 2005 report by local NGO Youth Star Cambodia, a high-ranking government official said only one in nine university graduates in Cambodia is able to find a job after finishing school.
"[This figure] comes from a quote from the Minister of Education that was given during a speech," said Eva Mysliwiec, director of Youth Star Cambodia.
"When you look at the number of graduating students, it's hard to imagine that many of them get jobs."
She cited another NGO that advertised one job opening and received 600 applications.
The findings of the Youth Star report, Youth, Volunteering and Social Capital in Cambodia, stands in sharp contrast to the country's recent economic growth, which the International Monetary Fund estimates to be roughly 13.1 percent in 2005.
The report, and the experiences of Kung, Lay and others like them, offer a bleak outlook on the job market for young Cambodians.
There is no system in place to help graduates find jobs. Job agencies specifically geared for youth are non-existent. Some universities hire a few of their recent graduates to teach or do administration. Universities may also be contacted by individual companies with job openings, but they do not have formal programs designed to help students find employment related to their studies.
Sok Hach, director of the Economic Institute of Cambodia, said Cambodia's economy does not need to grow faster to create jobs for university graduates.
"It is a question of quality of growth, not quantity," Hach said. He said the current growth should be coming from particular areas that would help university graduates to gain employment.
"This growth should come from big companies - and the quality of graduates needs to improve," Hach said.
According to the World Bank, roughly 300,000 people are added to Cambodia's labor force every year. The Economic Institute of Cambodia estimates that the country's economic growth generates only between 20,000 and 30,000 new jobs each year.
A 2004 International Labor Organization report said people aged 15 to 24 made up 70.6 percent of the unemployed in Phnom Penh. The ILO defines the unemployed as those who actively looked for work the week before the survey. People who have given up looking are not considered unemployed, nor are people who worked even one hour the previous week.
Sokha said university graduates must have knowledge of the English language and computers, and meet many other requirements to get a job.
"The government needs to pay attention to the quality of education," Sokha said. "Cambodia has enough schools."
He said the problem was the doubtful quality of the education being given. Private schools were focused on the fees they got from their students.
"But private schools should not think only of their income: they should think about the quality of education they offer as well, such as study programs, qualified teachers, education materials and making sure that students actually do their study," Sokha said.
Professor Bede Uwalaka, a graduate from the University of Nigeria who has taught at three different universities in Cambodia for more than seven years, said the quality of graduates is part of the problem, but not the only one.
"Most universities are privately owned," Uwalaka said. "Being a business they have to focus on the profit, which affects the quality of graduates, which affects employability. [But] you have to remember that Cambodia is a developing country... employment opportunities are microscopic."
Some students mentioned that some companies expect graduates to volunteer for a couple months before they will hire them. Uwalaka said part of this is because the education standard varies throughout the universities and corruption also occurs.
"There is an element of corruption in the system which makes it more difficult for graduates to get a job. Some employers require financial commitments - bribery - to get a job," Uwalaka said.
Some university graduates volunteer with NGOs or companies to gain experience in their chosen profession before they are able to find paid work.
Kung, 25, from Kampong Thom, is a fourth-year tourism major at the National University of Management (NUM). After high school, he worked for a year in a garment factory to save tuition money. Now, he's unsure if he'll find work once he earns his diploma.
"The job market here looks too narrow; it's very hard to get work," Kung said. "If I have a chance, I'd like to get a job in another country. But I don't think I'll have the opportunity."
Dorith Lay, 24, will graduate in two months. A fourth-year finance major at Build Bright University (BBU), Lay wants to get a job in a bank. He has already completed a two-month internship, but even with such experience he knows his chances are small.
Since Lay quit his job at a hotel last month his parents, banana farmers in Kampong Cham, have had to support him. Lay says if he cannot find a job related to finance, he'll try to work in a hotel again.
Chanvibol, 26, has been unemployed since he graduated in management from the National University of Management (NUM), in 2004. He lives with his parents in Phnom Penh. They pay for him to study English, a skill he hopes will help him land a job.
"Now, I do not mind what job I get. I just want to get some experience," Chanvibol said. "Since I graduated I have applied for many jobs, but I have never got any replies. To make my living, I help my uncle to clean his barbershop."
Roughly 8,000 students graduate each year from Cambodia's 47 colleges and universities, said Roth Sokha, director of the higher education department of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MEYS).
"Each year, our job market does not have enough places for those students who graduate," Sokha said.
In a 2005 report by local NGO Youth Star Cambodia, a high-ranking government official said only one in nine university graduates in Cambodia is able to find a job after finishing school.
"[This figure] comes from a quote from the Minister of Education that was given during a speech," said Eva Mysliwiec, director of Youth Star Cambodia.
"When you look at the number of graduating students, it's hard to imagine that many of them get jobs."
She cited another NGO that advertised one job opening and received 600 applications.
The findings of the Youth Star report, Youth, Volunteering and Social Capital in Cambodia, stands in sharp contrast to the country's recent economic growth, which the International Monetary Fund estimates to be roughly 13.1 percent in 2005.
The report, and the experiences of Kung, Lay and others like them, offer a bleak outlook on the job market for young Cambodians.
There is no system in place to help graduates find jobs. Job agencies specifically geared for youth are non-existent. Some universities hire a few of their recent graduates to teach or do administration. Universities may also be contacted by individual companies with job openings, but they do not have formal programs designed to help students find employment related to their studies.
Sok Hach, director of the Economic Institute of Cambodia, said Cambodia's economy does not need to grow faster to create jobs for university graduates.
"It is a question of quality of growth, not quantity," Hach said. He said the current growth should be coming from particular areas that would help university graduates to gain employment.
"This growth should come from big companies - and the quality of graduates needs to improve," Hach said.
According to the World Bank, roughly 300,000 people are added to Cambodia's labor force every year. The Economic Institute of Cambodia estimates that the country's economic growth generates only between 20,000 and 30,000 new jobs each year.
A 2004 International Labor Organization report said people aged 15 to 24 made up 70.6 percent of the unemployed in Phnom Penh. The ILO defines the unemployed as those who actively looked for work the week before the survey. People who have given up looking are not considered unemployed, nor are people who worked even one hour the previous week.
Sokha said university graduates must have knowledge of the English language and computers, and meet many other requirements to get a job.
"The government needs to pay attention to the quality of education," Sokha said. "Cambodia has enough schools."
He said the problem was the doubtful quality of the education being given. Private schools were focused on the fees they got from their students.
"But private schools should not think only of their income: they should think about the quality of education they offer as well, such as study programs, qualified teachers, education materials and making sure that students actually do their study," Sokha said.
Professor Bede Uwalaka, a graduate from the University of Nigeria who has taught at three different universities in Cambodia for more than seven years, said the quality of graduates is part of the problem, but not the only one.
"Most universities are privately owned," Uwalaka said. "Being a business they have to focus on the profit, which affects the quality of graduates, which affects employability. [But] you have to remember that Cambodia is a developing country... employment opportunities are microscopic."
Some students mentioned that some companies expect graduates to volunteer for a couple months before they will hire them. Uwalaka said part of this is because the education standard varies throughout the universities and corruption also occurs.
"There is an element of corruption in the system which makes it more difficult for graduates to get a job. Some employers require financial commitments - bribery - to get a job," Uwalaka said.
Some university graduates volunteer with NGOs or companies to gain experience in their chosen profession before they are able to find paid work.
2 comments:
It's about who you know and network with the Upper Class in order to land that job. These universities are like blood sucking vampire. They only care about your money, but deliver poor quality of education. They don't care as long as they're making money from your sons and daughers. On top of that why bother to study when you know your chance of landing a job after graduate is very slim. maybe it's best to learn how to be a psychic reading or card reading, then you'll make money by fortelling a person future. Khmer is bing on superstition and cautious on their path of lives. Be a palm reader, you'll make cash-in, instead of cash-out into some stupid education, what can those stupid proffessor teach you anway...bunch of craps and BS to me.
Cambodia will soon experience BRAIN DRAIN! Brain drain is process where all educated Cambodian willing to go oversea to for other nation! The situation in Cambodia will never improve without educated people!
Having knowledge in not enough but having someone who had been there and will show you how to apply the knowledge in the real world is the way to go!
It is sad to see these Cambodian graduate from AH HUN SEN school of hard-knock without a job! It is too bad that the Chinese or the Viet will never show them anything except to be their slave!
I truely believe that they will survive because I myself been through it and I survived! Now I owned my own business! I create my own job! Then I let other people do me job! Then I became the boss! When you become a boss then you the world in different perspective!
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