Official Urges Students to Take Technical Studies to Find Work

A preference for NGO and government jobs among young Cambodians was contributing to a critical labor shortage in the industrial manufacturing sector, a Labor Ministry official said yesterday. Speaking to 3,000 prospective university students on Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island, Labor Ministry Secretary of State Pich Sophoan said employers routinely complain of a lack of skilled workers to do mechanical and technical work in factories, crucial to Cambodia’s preparation for Asean’s economic integration in 2015. … Kim Ley, an independent researcher, said a 2010 survey he conducted for the government found that 42 percent of recent university graduates were unemployed because they wanted to work for international NGOs and the government, but lacked the necessary skills. …