Tourism minister Sok Soken (right) meets with Markus Buerli, director of cooperation for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on January 10. Tourism Ministry
Cambodia and Switzerland have discussed increasing the provision of vocational training for the tourism industry.
Through the wider implementation of the Skills Development Programme Phase II 2024-2028, they aim to bring the quality of services in line with national and ASEAN standards, ensuring that the Kingdom becomes a top-notch tourism destination.
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The discussions took place as Minister of Tourism Sok Soken received a courtesy call from Markus Buerli, director of cooperation for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), on January 10.
According to a tourism ministry press release, the two sides examined opportunities to strengthen tourism cooperation through the Skills Development Programme (SDP) – implemented by the Swisscontact NGO – and the Decent Employment for Youths (DEY) programme, which was implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Tourism-specific educational programmes will also contribute to the seventh-mandate government’s policy of providing vocational training to 1.5 million disadvantaged Cambodian youths from poor and vulnerable families.
“During the meeting, the two parties expressed their commitment to further strengthen and expand tourism cooperation through vocational training programmes, and to promote destination management for an attractive and competitive tourism destination,” said the release.
It added that they also discussed the development of Cambodia tourism qualifications, as well as the establishment of an electronic recognition of prior learning assessment platform (E-RPL).
Soken presented the tourism ministry’s joint strategic initiative, which has the vision of turning Cambodia into a vibrant, competitive, sustainable and environmentally-friendly tourism destination.
“These strategies focus on five strategic pillars, which spell out ‘5-BUILD’ as well as three supporting components called the ‘three development-3Ds’. The development of human resources is one of our key priorities, and the SDC’s programmes have made active contributions to this in the past,” he said.
Buerli reiterated the strong support of the Swiss government under the Swiss Regional Cooperation Programme for 2022-2025, which focuses on supporting the Cambodia government through contributions to good governance, inclusive economic development through technical and vocational training, and climate change mitigation and natural resource management.
Soken also expressed his appreciation for the SDC’s support for the Hospitality Kampuchea (HoKa) training programme. In has trained more than 4,000 youths from poor or vulnerable families in ten target provinces, and is slated to expand into Koh Kong and Kampong Chhnang provinces this year.
The HoKa training programme, a collaboration between the tourism ministry and Swisscontact, provides hospitality training to low-skilled staff, managers and the owners of tourism enterprises.
Chuob Ratana, director of the tourism development planning department, previously explained that HoKa graduates provide excellent services, and generally earn higher salaries.
