9th annual expert meeting of the initiative on Employment and Skills Strategies in South East Asia(ESSSA)and

6th Regional Policy Dialogue on TVET “Building Talent for the Next Production Revolution”

Group 1A: Better linking people to jobs through responsive employment services:

Case of Cambodia

Somean KUOCH (Mr.) Deputy Director General

National Employment Agency

11-12 October, 2017 Ha Noi, Viet Nam

1

Quick Fact about Cambodia Labor Market

8.1% 6.6%

8.5% 10.3%

13.3%

10.8% 10.2%

6.7%

0.1%

6.0% 7.1% 7.3% 7.4% 7.1% 7.0% 7.0% 7.0%

-15%

-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%Cambodia's Sectoral and Total GDP Growth, 2001-2017

Agriculture Industry Services Total GDP

Source: Ministry of Economics and Finance

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

1999 2004 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Agriculture Industry Services

Sectoral Employment Share (age 15-64), 1999-2015

Source: Cambodian Social Economics Survey,

1999-2015

Cambodian WAP (15-64); generational entries, exits and total balance; yearly values in thousands; 1990-2025

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015). World Population Prospects:

The 2015 Revision, DVD Edition.

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

19

70

19

75

19

80

19

85

19

90

19

95

20

00

20

05

20

10

20

15

20

20

20

25

20

30

20

35

20

40

20

45

20

50

20

55

20

60

20

65

20

70

20

75

20

80

20

85

20

90

20

95

21

00

Balance Entry Exit

5 Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015). World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, DVD Edition.

25 20 15 10 5 0 5 10 15 20 25

0-4

10-14

20-24

30-34

40-44

50-54

60-64

70-74

80-84

90-94

100+ Male_2017

Female_2017

Female_1990

Male_1990

Population structure by age and gender, 1990 & 2017

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

19

50

19

60

19

70

19

80

19

90

20

00

20

10

20

20

20

30

20

40

20

50

20

60

20

70

20

80

20

90

21

00

Cambodia Myanmar Thailand Vietnam

• Cambodia is at the early stage of demographic dividend, while Vietnam and Thailand already passed their peaks.

• This has also caused burdens for education and training system and employment creation.

6

Ratio of Population (aged 15-64) over (aged 0-14 & 65+); 1950-2100

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015). World

Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, DVD Edition.

• The educational attainment has substantially improved as reflected by the decrease in the share of no education and incomplete primary education as well as the increase in the primary competition rate.

7

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

No Education

Incomplete Primary

Primary

Lower Secondary

Upper Secondary

Post Secondary

Source: Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (2015). Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer Version 1.2.

Population aged 15+ by educational attainment (%); 1990-2025

Challenges

Young workforce, but with low- education and -skills

Pressure for productive and decent employment creation

Lack of labor intermediation to facilitate information flow and provide efficient placement and matching in labor market, resulting in: High search cost, shortage, mismatch, and unresponsiveness and rigidities

Government interventions

Establishing Public Employment Service (National Employment Agency and its Job Centers in 2009)

Cambodia Industrial Development Policy, 2015-2025

National Employment Policy 2015-2025

National TVET Development Policy 2017-2025

Functions of NEA

Jobseekers Vocational & Educational programs

Labour market

Information flow

Occupational profile

Career and vocational counseling

and guidance

Job placement

and employment counseling

For employment counseling and job placement:

Assist jobseekers in acquiring job search skills and soft skills

Invite jobseekers for a job interview

Referral and placement to local jobs

NEA job shop (www.nea.gov.kh) and job search application (android) providing free registration, job matching, and the last updated list of available vacancies.

For career and vocational counseling:

Assist students to select appropriate occupations (self-assessment based on interests, personality, value & skills; and planning future career using LMI).

Identify skill gap & determine the most appropriate means of closing this gap.

Employment forums (mobile career fairs, recruitment events, and national career fairs): provide the fast track meeting of jobseekers and employers to meet each other in activities featuring registration, interview, and placement in one venue at a specific date to reduce job searching cost, and time.

NEA Job Centers in Cambodia

4

Activities 2014 2015 2016 2017

(September)

Number of Jobseekers registered 25,501 9,519 13,480 11,569

Number of referrals 7,402 6,129 11,281 13,133

Number of placement 2,925 1,394 2,443 2,286

Pre employment training 3,374 3,678 944 849

Career counseling and guidance n.a n.a 2,967 1,996

Soft skill training n.a n.a 388 447

Mobile career fairs Number of events 63 119 92 87

Participants 12,387 5,440 11,590 12,333

Recruitment events Number of events 32 46 65 61

Participants 6,628 5,865 8,565 9,487

Summary of NEA’s achievement

Effective approach--hands-on practices and coaching, experience sharing and learning from PES in other developed countries

Quality of human resource--important for knowledge transfer and absorption, and delivery of quality ES and LMI

Institutional capacity-- determining effectiveness of internal and external coordination, and further development

Outreach–oriented strategies and activities (including through IT and social media)-- effective for ES promotion and delivery

Experiences from Cambodian Case

10

Integrated approach to PES and LMI, and domestic employment and migration service—more efficient

Sustainability— ES and LMI-- having been set among priorities in national

socio-economic development strategy (RS III), and long-term sectoral policies (IDP 2015-2025, NEP 2015-2025)

Integration of NEA Work Plan (2017-2019) with Medium Term Strategic Budget Plan (3-yr rolling) which provides predictability and ensures national budget allocation

The Way Forward

Gradual expansion and improvement of ES and LMI proportional to financial and human resource capacity, building on previous achievements:

Prioritized expansion of job centers, and strengthening of outreach activities

Service quality improvement through re-designing process and delivery model for better integration and deepening of ES and LMI, including making use of IT

Institutional and staff capacity development in leadership and management, programing and database, analysis and forecast, guidance and counseling, pre-employment training, and entrepreneurship training.

Thank you for attention!

www.nea.gov.kh Email: info@nea.gov.kh

Facebook: www.facebook.com/neakhmer Tel: 023 884 692/088 678 5678

Government gateway to: Job, Workforce, and Labour Market Information

18