Learning new skills at Skills Fair

On March 31, we held our third Skills Fair at Kralanh High School. Skills Fair aims to creates awareness of opportunities beyond high school and connects students with a variety of organizations to learn about options for university and vocational school, future job prospects and the skills required to obtain such jobs, and available scholarships. It also provides a rare opportunity for students to talk directly with skilled professionals, hearing about their roles and experiences first-hand.

Skills Fair is a full-day event, with the skills fair portion in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. This year’s workshops included a CV and cover letter workshop presented by Youth Employment Services Center and job searching and interview tips workshop provided by the National Employment Agency. As well, students received an inspirational speech from several guest speakers about following your dreams. This included a speech by a successful businesswoman from Kralanh District who now holds a managerial position at one of Siem Reap’s top hotels.
The organizations that were represented at Skills Fair included universities, vocational training schools, NGOs, hotels, microfinance companies, and more. While attendance at the event was down compared to last year, we were pleased to see students really engaged with the fair participants and the smaller numbers helped to facilitate this interaction. The workshops were standing-room only and well-received.
The scholarship students also attended the event, which not only offered them the chance to speak to potential future employers, but allowed them to interact with the high school students and talk about their experiences studying in Siem Reap. After all, it was not so long ago the scholarship students were themselves Kralanh High School students!

A big thank you to the fifteen organizations that participated in the event: Amansara, Ayana Journeys, Build Bright University, Cambodian Mekong University, Cellcard, Chantiers-Ecoles de Formation Professionnelle, Ecole Paul Dubrule, Investing in Children and their Societies, Journeys Within Our Community, Kredit Microfinance, National Employment Agency, New Leaf Book Café, Regional Polytechnic Institute Techno Sen Siem Reap, Sala Baï, and Youth Employment Services Center.