The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training on Tuesday unveiled a mobile job centre to take employment services to jobseekers across the country, especially those in rural areas, thanks to the completion of the project in collaboration with Swedish organisations.

The Mobile Job Centre was inaugurated at the ministry on Tuesday, in a ceremony presided over by Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Ith Sam Heng, and attended by Swedish Ambassador to Cambodia Maria Sargren, Eva Theisz, the head of the International Department at the Swedish Public Employment Service, unions, and development partners and other guests.

The ceremony saw the completion of the latest collaboration between the National Employment Agency (NEA) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

“With this mobile job centre, we will be able to provide registration and job finding services, an employment library, career consultancy, lists of job vacancies and information on the Cambodian job market for those looking for work at their location."

“This project has tremendous value in terms of sharing employment information with jobseekers and youth with real skills,” Sam Heng said.

Sargren hailed the collaboration between the NEA and its Swedish partners in providing Cambodians with training and career opportunities.

“The Swedish government applauds the many accomplishments of the National Employment Agency, which has been working with the Sida and Swedish Public Employment Service,” she said.

‘Very positive development’

NEA has helped around 20,000 people find employment, 3,450 receive training in soft skills and entrepreneurship training, 140,000 get career advice and 749 obtain some type of internship, while around 90,000 have registered as jobseekers.

Youth, students, women and disabled people have particularly benefited, receiving training and employment-related information.

Sam Heng requested Sida and the Swedish Public Employment Service to continue working with NEA to add further mobile job centres if demand dictated.

Som Aun, president of Cambodian Labour Union Federation, welcomed the creation of the mobile job centre, saying jobseekers in rural areas would no longer have to travel to the capital for employment assistance.

“People in rural areas lack access to information that can help them find employment opportunities. They have to travel to Phnom Penh for this."

“Now that the ministry has created this mobile job centre, it will make it far easier for them to find employment information. I think it is a very positive development,” he said.