MoU signing between the Skills Development Program, the skills Development Fund, and Decent Employment for Youth in Cambodia  

The overall goal of the MoU is to contribute to the institutional development of the Skills Development Fund (SDF) to be a more inclusive, accessible, and flexible funding source for proficient and sustainable skills development and employment for youth.

The MoU is specifically developed for the following objectives:

• To contribute to the development of technical expertise and skills of the SDF team through exchanging and building technical knowledge, expertise and skills, related to private sector engagement, finance and grant management, development of innovative funding modalities and management tools for the sustainability of SDF.
• To increase access to the SDF fund for companies (including large firms, SMSs, tourism and hospitality businesses) and TVET providers, through PPP by building their capacities. Furthermore, employer associations² are strengthened to fulfil their role in coordinating and mobilising their members, to develop and pilot demand-based skills training programmes through WBL models, e.g., Quality Apprenticeship, In-Company Training, professional internships, and other practical solutions to train youth for decent employment and to generate innovative models to be replicated under the SDF.

Mr. Rajiv Pradhan expressed gratefully thankful to the Swiss Government that agreed to continue to support the development of the Cambodian Technical Education and Vocational Training, as well as Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MoLVT), Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Skills Development Fund (SDF), and Decent Employment for Youth (DEY), employer associations, private sector and TVET training providers for the effective cooperation.

The Parties will endeavour to achieve the following outcomes:

• A package of guiding resources, namely a practical handbook on Private Sector Engagement (PSE) and a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) guideline (incl. governance/management, financing mechanism, resource mobilization, etc.) are in place and support the SDF to effectively develop and implement PPPs and built capacities that contribute to the sustainability of the SDF.
• A total of 10 joint training proposals as PPP are developed and submitted to SDF, for the training of at least 60 (in-company) instructors/trainers and a total of 300 trainees for pre-employment, upskilling and reskilling through Work-Based Learning (WBL) models, e.g. In-Company Training, Quality Apprenticeship, professional internships, including through blended training methodology with the integration of green transformation etc.
• A total of 10 private companies (incl. large firms, SMEs, tourism and hospitality businesses) in partnership with Technical Training Institutes (TTIs), are enabled to meet the requirements and access the SDF, to pilot WBL, In-CT, Quality Apprenticeship programmes, etc.
• Participating employer associations will be enabled to perform their coordinating role and mobilize companies as members of the employer associations to jointly develop and prepare the necessary training programs and proposals for access to the SDF.