Vocational Training Transforms a Setback into Success for Lynha
Vocational training transforms a set back into success for Lynha
Despite failing her high school exams, student Lynha is on her way to an Associate Degree and a career in accounting thanks to ISF’s Employment Support. This project was designed in response to a growing need for Cambodian youth to learn vocational and soft skills to improve their employment opportunities after school.
Here at ISF, we encourage and support all our student to finish high school and pass the national grade 12 exams. But, despite our best efforts and the best efforts of our students, things don’t always go according to plan. Coming from severely disadvantaged backgrounds and living below the poverty line, as students grow older, they face enormous pressure to start earning an income. One of our biggest challenges at ISF is keeping our older students in school.
Understanding the situations our students face, we developed our Employment Support which provides careers counselling, soft skill training and vocational training to students aged 14 years and older. Our Employment Support team also help students to find part-time jobs they can manage alongside their studies and links to internships and on-the-job training where possible. Our research has proven that students who receive vocational training earn more and have more secure employment than our students who don’t.
Student Hom Lynha joined ISF in 2009 as a grade 3 Catch-Up Education Programme student. Lynha completed her education right up to grade 12 but unfortunately failed the national exams (BacII) in 2018. In 2019, we welcomed her back to ISF under our Employment Support project. Here, she received careers counselling which led her to realise that she would like to train as an accountant.
Our team supported Lynha to enrol in the National Institute of Business,where she began a High Diploma Degree (Associate Degree) in Accounting. At the same time, we offered her an internship in the finance office right here at ISF which she has now been doing for almost six months. During her internship she has learned how calculate cash flow, support financial processes and issue cheques. She is also learning about reporting, work-place professionalism, money clearance processes, accounting firms, accounting terminology and much more. This internship will enable her to learn more about accounting as well as apply what she learns in the classroom in her role at ISF. After completing her degree, she wishes to work as an accountant and we estimate that she will earn $200 a month which is approximately 10% above the average monthly income in Cambodia.
Despite failing her exams, Lynha has been able to pursue an alternative path to continuing education and finding gainful employment opportunities – demonstrating that with hard work and the right support, success is possible.
