HoKa schools 4,556 tourist professionals in four years

 

Hospitality Kampuchea (HoKa), a joint project initiated by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) and Swisscontact Cambodia, has trained 4,556 tourist professionals – 2,619 females – over the second phase to facilitate the tourism sector covering 12 provinces.

This was revealed during the celebration of the HoKa Skills Days 2024 theme ‘Tourism Investment, Human Resources Investment’ at Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel & Residence yesterday by Pak Sokhom, Secretary of State of MoT and Chairman of the HoKa Steering Committee.

The event saw the participation of Christian Disler, Deputy Director and Head of Programme Inclusive Economic Development of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Christian Volker Ide, Team Leader of Skill Development Programmes (SDP).

Sokhom said that the HoKa project was conducted following the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between MoT and Swisscontact on August 05, 2020, to implement the project’s second phase from 2020-2024.

As a result, the HoKa Management Committee of MoT has trained a total of 4,556 tourism professionals and among that 2,619 are female over the period of four years across 12 provinces of which Kos Kong and Kampong Chhang provinces have just been merged into the list last year, he added.

“The HoKa Skills Days 2024 is an important opportunity to share experiences and exchange ideas on technical and vocational training in line with the strategic direction of the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) aimed at promoting the development of human resources with high quality and productivity especially the strategy of training 1.5 million young people.”

The HoKa Chairman said, “Today’s event differs from last year as the team organised the competition for latte art battle and red wine service to encourage and reward Cambodian young people in the tourism industry who trained under the HoKa target provinces.”

The SDP team leader said that it is a dream come true for all of us that the HoKa project has become an important industry-based instrument to re-skill and up-skill hospitality workers in the Kingdom.

He explained that SDP is a project of SDC in its second phase which was implemented by Swisscontact, in a consortium with the involas – an institute for vocational education and training, labour market and social policy – through collaboration with MoT, the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MLVT), Skill Development Funds (SDF) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the National Education Association (NEA) and the provincial governments.”

The programme has a systems design and pronged approach that involves all key actors of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system, such as job centres, public and non-governmental training providers, associations, chambers, as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the hospitality and other sectors of TVET system, he added.

Speaking to Khmer Times earlier, the Head of SDC said, “SDC has been implementing a four-year Mekong Region Cooperation Programme in Cambodia and Lao PDR and one of the priorities under that programme is inclusive economic development, with a particular focus on skills development.”

He emphasized that the ultimate objective is to assist young Cambodians in developing their skills through enrollment in pertinent training programs and the issuance of learning certificates, which will enhance their employability and enable them to earn a respectable living.

According to the HoKa report issued by SDP, the 12 provinces included Kratié, Mondolkiri, Ratanakiri, Strung Treng, Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey, Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Pailin, Pursat, Kos Kong and Kampong Chhang provinces.