Presentation by Somean Kuoch, Deputy Director General of the National Employment Agency, Cambodia, at the 9th OECD Southeast Asian Regional Policy Network on Education and Skills 11-12 October 2017, Ha Noi, Viet Nam. More information: http://www.oecd.org/employment/leed/employmentesssa.htm

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
2035
2040
2045
2050
2055
2060
2065
2070
2075
2080
2085
2090
2095
2100
Balance Entry Exit

5. 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

6. 0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
2030
2040
2050
2060
2070
2080
2090
2100
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.

7. • 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

8. 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

9. Functions of NEA
Jobseekers
Vocational &
Educational
programs
Labour market
Information flow
Occupational
profile
Career and
vocational
counseling
and guidance
Job
placement
and
employment
counseling

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. NEA Job Centers in Cambodia
4

14. 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

15.  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

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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
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