McKinsey Mekong Business Plan Challenge 2012

McKinsey & Company in partnership with the National University of Management, Phnom Penh are pleased to present the McKinsey Mekong Business Plan Challenge 2012.

McKinsey Mekong Business Plan

• Develop a new business or social venture!
• Learn how to create a winning business plan!
• Compete against your peers in the Mekong Region!
• Extend your network of business contacts!
• Challenge yourself and your ideas!

Applications are open to all undergraduate and graduate students from universities in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

Application Deadline is November 1, 2011.   

For further information, please e-mail: MekongChallenge@gmail.com

Please visit: https://sites.google.com/site/mekongchallenge/

Putting theory into practice

Written by Eleanor Ainge Roy and Hor Hab

Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Cambodia produces too many IT graduates every year for the limited jobs available – and many lack the hands-on experience the sector needs Photo by: Sovann Philong A Cambodian IT student comes to grips with the reality of the workplace. CAMBODIA's universities are pumping out more graduates than its information technology sector can absorb. While the exact number is unknown - the Ministry of Education does not release full figures - the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) alone has produced around 500 IT graduates each year since 1997. Norton, Build Bright, Setec and Pannasastra universities also offer IT courses. Ouk Chhieng, head of the computer science department at RUPP, said only 25 to 30 percent of IT graduates would find full-time work while a further 20 percent would be employed in temporary or part-time positions. Those lucky enough to find a job were far from the finished product, said Erya Houn Heng, president and CEO of First Cambodia. "They need a lot of guidance in a real working environment and usually require one to two years' training before they can be considered efficient workers." First Cambodia employs about 180 people in Laos and Cambodia, all drawn from local universities. It recruits around 30 new employees each year, picking just three or four out of every 100 it sees. While the average starting salary for a new employee is $150 per month, experienced workers can earn anywhere from $200 to $4,000 for senior managers. Norton University graduate Min Phannarak works for software development company Arocore. Incredibly, or perhaps typically, when he enrolled to study IT he didn't even know how to turn a computer on. He said his degree had not prepared him for work in the sector, and with no computer at home it was difficult to practice his skills. "At university you learn the theory of software, but you don't know how it works - you are just told that you will need it in the future," he said. But he was one of the lucky ones, he said. Most of his fellow graduates were unemployed or worked at computer shops for $80 to $100 a month. They are like rough diamonds that have not yet been polished. Arocore CEO Kit Hargreaves, who employs 13 Cambodians, said finding qualified graduates was difficult, particularly as no universities or schools in Cambodia taught Flash, a common development program. Most of Arocore's Cambodian staff did manual database work as their skill levels were still low, Hargreaves said. "We actually only have a couple of guys I can trust to be really good programmers." He said a lack of intuition about computers and applications stemmed from inadequate teaching and the fact that few Cambodians had grown up around computers. "What they learned in school - how to type code in theory or how to follow instructions in a book - isn't what makes a good programmer," he said. "What makes a good programmer is being able to apply old technologies or established bits of code in a new and intuitive way, which is something Khmers have a long way to go in grasping." Sous Sakal, business development manager at software design firm Blue Technology, said Cambodian programmers needed more practical work experience. "I think local universities produce quality students; [but] they have not yet had the opportunities to develop to their full potential," he said. "They are like rough diamonds that have not been polished." Source: Phnom Penh Post

Workers lacking key skills: survey

Written by Chun Sophal and Hor Hab

Wednesday, 01 October 2008

NEARLY 96 percent of Cambodian employers require some form of higher education when hiring professional staff, with 72 percent requiring a bachelor's or master's degree, according to a new survey by the Cambodian Federation of Employers and Business Associations (CAMFEBA). But more than half of the 220 employers surveyed said it was difficult to find professional staff with good analytical and decision-making skills. "Only 13 percent of employers believe that graduates have all or most of the skills they need for work," CAMFEBA said in a statement. Var Sim Samrith, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Labor, said the ministry needs time to improve educational and job training sectors. "It is very important for the ministry and other institutions, as well as related personnel, to balance the supply of skilled workers in Cambodia's labor market," said Var Sim Samrith. Yim Meng Chhorn, a human resource analyst with HR Inc Cambodia, said the lack of skilled workers has less to do with specific degrees than that the skills they do possess do not correspond to market demands. "More and more students are studying finance, but they ignore technical and agricultural skills," said Yim Meng Chhorn. "New employees normally need to adapt to their workplace because the quality of exams is low, students are lazy at school and the curriculum needs to be updated," he said. About 33 percent of university and vocational training students make their own decision on their field of study, based on perceptions of those skills in the Cambodian labour market, the survey noted. Chan Sok Khieng, rector of Norton University in Phnom Penh, said between 1,200 and 1,500 students each year earn bachelor's and master's degrees at his university. "More than 90 percent of new graduates from Norton University can find a job because we are providing them with the skills that match market needs," he said. Chan Sok Khieng said graduates must possess more than the sufficient skill to do the jobs they are hired to perform. They also need to have a proper perspective on the workplace itself. "Many young people don't understand what it means to be a part of a working team in an office environment," he said. Source: Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia - University Scholarship 2008

According to Kosantepheap Daily newspaper, there are 3260 students who passed high school this year got university fee scholarship to study in various universities in Cambodia. There are 11 public universities and one private university that provided the scholarship.

The way to select the scholarship based on some criteria such as for best students (60%), girls priorities (15%), poor students (15%) and very far from the city (10%).

Around the way to use for this selection, the minister of Ministry of Education said, we use computer program to manage and we need some criteria required by each university. The selection is fair and everyone glad to the selection than selection by exam. "Exam can be good only for the best students but not poor students or girls priorities..."

Personally, I was in the first start of suck kind of this selection, I felt it was not fair enough but it's better than exam because most or sometimes, the best students couldn't pass well to the state university that's because of the corruption during/after the entrant university exam. But more better if the high school exam is fair enough (no corruption during exam) so that the selection criteria for best students would be fair.

Even thought, the Ministry of Education provides the training to various teachers to explain to the student about this selection but the information is not really spread enough to them, some students I met said: "They were not clear enough about the university selection". They said they didn't understand about the Major priority because some institutes need to apply the exam before give the scholarship so they though, the priority will not apply. Example if they put 1st priority to Medicine and 2nd is Engineer... and because of Engineer need to take exam, so they though, if they are good, would get Engineer scholarship before the Medicine scholarship because of Medicine doesn't have any exam.

But as students we must think and consider all our choices different way and should get more information before any decision. Ask to the teachers about the way we understand first.

Source: Kohsantepheap Daily Newspaper, Metrey's expression