Factory Literacy Teachers Received Capacity Building: Training of Trainer
The Cambodia Garment Training Institute (CGTI) and Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), in close cooperation with UNESCO and the Department of Non-Formal Education (DNFE) of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) has organized a hybrid capacity building Training of Trainer (ToT) workshop for teachers of the factory literacy program (FLP) on 14-16 July 2021. With 12 teachers from participating factories in the program, the three-day workshop was conducted with the aim to review the lessons learned, challenges, and to introduce more training techniques and tools to better design and deliver the lessons to literacy learners as part of Adult Learning and Education (ALE).
Recently, with UNESCO’s technical support, the MoEYS has formulated the two policy documents, namely Cambodia’s Education 2030 Roadmap and the National Lifelong Learning Policy. UNESCO also supported the Department of Non-Formal Education to revise the literacy textbooks for Khmer and Mathematic subjects for Level 1 and Level 2. Successful completion of both levels will be recognized by MoEYS as equivalent to Grade 6 or primary level completion.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Andrew Tey, CGTI Center Director, expressed his sincere appreciation to MoEYS and UNESCO teams for helping CGTI make this capacity building workshop possible. This workshop is part of a series of activities under the partnership between CGTI and GMAC with UNESCO which was established in 2021 to support lifelong leaning for factory literacy students.
Mr. Danny Padilla, Chief of Education Unit at UNESCO Phnom Penh Office, started his remarks by reiterating the close cooperation between UNESCO, MoEYS and CGTI/GMAC aimed at strengthening the capacity of literacy teachers and more specifically in implementing the Factory Literacy Program (FLP). He thanked the MoEYS, literacy teachers, factory employers and all partners for their efforts, highlighting the fact that by December 2020, a total of 2,000 students (95% of females) from target factories had completed the programme and been awarded certificates of literacy completion which is equivalent to grade 4 of formal schooling.
Speaking on behalf of MoYES, Mr. Kuoch Koulom-A, Director of Non-Formal Education thanked the UNESCO Phnom Penh Office for the technical and financial support to NFE progammes in Cambodia, and CGTI for organizing the capacity building workshop. He mentioned that the training is responsive to the current need of teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it is in line the objective and vision of the Royal Government of Cambodia to improve the human resource capacity and efficiency to become an upper-middle income country by 2030, and a developed one by 2050.
This workshop is part of the second phase of the Decent Employment for Youth in Cambodia programme with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and UNESCO.
UNESCO calls for accelerated investments in the lifelong learning efforts to enable all Cambodian citizens to “skill, re-skill and up-skill” for Cambodia to maintain its impressive economic growth and consolidate the peace and harmony in the country.