Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Ith Samheng and Thai Minister of Education, Science, Research and Innovation Anek Laothamatas have pledged to increase cooperation on technical and vocational education and training areas.
Laothamatas led a delegation to meet for talks with Samheng on August 5 at the labour ministry in Phnom Penh.
At the meeting, Samheng commended the government of Thailand for its success in developing human resources, infrastructure and projects to share with neighbouring countries, while the Cambodian government has also increasingly prioritised human resource development in recent years.
He noted that the labour ministry has the technical and vocational training system from the certificate level to the bachelor's degree in place. Given rapid social development and innovation, especially with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Cambodia is preparing to implement a national education policy and technical and vocational training policy better able to meet the current needs of the labour market.
Samheng thanked the government of Thailand for its support of Cambodian human resource development and especially the help from Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who donated to the schools in Kampong Thom and Kampong Speu.
To increase cooperation between the two countries in the human resources training area, the Cambodia-Thailand Institute was inaugurated in 2002.
Samheng highlighted that effort, saying that the two countries had also worked together on combatting human trafficking, as well as boosting each other’s capacity in the fields of electricity and plumbing. This has enabled Cambodian workers to return home and easily find employment, and the two countries have been under discussion to link the social security system to benefit Cambodia’s migrant workers in Thailand.
Laothamatas also highlighted human resource development in Thailand, mentioning Thailand’s preparatory schools for engineering and the university programme for training technical and vocational teachers.
He added that if the labour ministry of Cambodia was interested, Thailand could send educators to study with the programme so that after graduation they could return home and more effectively implement TVET training.
He said he was also pleased to see that Cambodia's economy is growing again post-pandemic and that Cambodia and Thailand were continuing to further cooperate in order to benefit each other.
Laothamatas also pledged to provide scholarships through two prestigious universities in Thailand to civil servants and officials from the labour ministry of Cambodia to obtain Bachelor's and Master's degrees.
Samheng said he was very pleased that the Thai side would continue to provide Cambodia with scholarships related to human resources training.
The ministers agreed to have the technical teams of the two countries continue working together and to sign a memorandum of understanding to enhance cooperation in education, technical and vocational training areas.
