In-person training of trainers on public employment services in Cambodia

Public employment services (PES) officials and employment counsellors in Cambodia play a crucial role in delivering employment services to the public, tailoring these services to the needs of jobseekers and the requirements of the private sector and employers. They are responsible for implementing policies, providing career guidance, offering pre-employment training, and facilitating job placements. Their training and development are essential for improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of employment services.

In previous meetings and discussions with the ILO ProSSCE-ASEAN project team, the National Employment Agency(NEA), Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training Cambodia, highlighted the need to strengthen the capacity of all NEA and employment centre officials and requested technical assistance from the ILO through the ProSSCE-ASEAN and DEY III projects to support the rollout of a nationwide four-tiered training programme, starting with the adaptation and launch of an online training. This will be followed by an in-person Training of Trainers (ToT) for selected participants, the implementation of provincial-level trainings by the trainers trained during the ToT, and complemented by webinars or in-person sessions on specific themes such as gender inclusion, inclusion of persons with disabilities, and just transitions.

In addition, the NEA has requested support from the ProSSCE-ASEAN project to help set up a monitoring system or methodology to assess the capacity of its employment counsellors, evaluate their performance, and establish a system for ongoing follow-up to identify areas for improvement and where additional support may be needed.

In August 2024, the project facilitated a bilateral knowledge-sharing meeting between NEA and BINAPENTA of the Ministry of Manpower of Indonesia to share and discuss the practices related to the organization and implementation of the four-tiered training for career counsellors in Indonesia. This meeting provided valuable insights from the Indonesian perspective on training methodologies, offering practical suggestions for nationwide implementation, as well as good practices that could be adapted to enhance NEA’s labour market programmes in Cambodia. These insights included approaches to curriculum design, delivery mechanisms, trainer selection, and performance monitoring—elements that can contribute to a more effective and scalable capacity-building framework for public employment counsellors.

This training initiative in Cambodia will be co-implemented by the ILO and the NEA. On the ILO side, it will be led by the Employment Policy Department (ILO EMPLAB) in collaboration with NEA, and with technical support through the ProSSCE-ASEAN and DEY III projects.