I want to be a pilot
My Journey — I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Saturday, February 3rd after more than 24 hours of traveling on three different flights. I was the last of our SAP team of 12 to arrive, and unfortunately my luggage did not arrive with me. Nevertheless, I only had a few hours to get some sleep before our team orientation meeting on Sunday.
So, I checked into the Himawari hotel where we are all staying for the month and began the SAP Social Sabbatical journey.
The Team — While the twelve of us had been meeting virtually for months, Sunday the 4th was the first time we would finally meet in person. Our team is made up of SAP colleagues from all over the world (1-Austria, 1-Brazil, 1-France, 3-Germany, 1-India, 1-Mexico, 1-Netherlands, 1-Philippines, 2-United States). Hosted by our two Pyxera Global leaders, we all met for some team-building activities and preparation for our projects that would kick off on Monday. How great it was to meet everyone, and how kind they all were in offering me clothes and necessities while I waited for my luggage to arrive 24 hours later. The day was concluded with some sight-seeing at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, followed by a dinner providing my first experience with Cambodian food.
Our Projects — Monday arrived and I was thrilled that I was able to watch the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl in our meeting room along with some of my SAP team members. The Eagles won, my luggage had arrived…the day was off to a great start! Now it was time to meet our NGO clients and learn more about what they do and the work that our SAP teams will help them to achieve. Our four clients are SHE Investments, Edemy, Youth Star, and Empowering Youth in Cambodia (EYC). Along with two of my SAP team members, Katja from Germany and Srini from India, I am working with EYC. It was so inspiring to hear about the work that these NGOs are doing in to help improve education for the Cambodian youth and to support female entrepenuers establish and run successful businesses.
Empowering Youth in Cambodia (EYC) — Founded by a fellow American, Empowering Youth in Cambodia, http://eycambodia.org/, is a grassroots organization based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working to improve the lives of young people and their families. EYC’s vision is to see youth empowered with skills and confidence to be leaders who actively develop themselves, their families and the community for positive change. EYC runs 4 learning centers, operating as combined schools and community centers, in Phnom Penh’s poorest communities. The schools are houses that are rented, each with a classroom and small computer lab. EYC operates a number of programs for their students, giving them an opportunity to learn life skills and broaden their education. This is an integral part of EYC’s work and ensures that the schools are not just there for classrooms and books, but for a sense of community, friendship and support. EYC provides education and services to around 800 youth ages 6–23, including English and Computer skills, as well as health services, community organizing, leadership training, sports (soccer & biking), yoga, and dancing. Most students at EYC study in a public primary school, high school or university, as well as work to support their studies.
The project which my team is supporting has the objective of developing a strategy for EYC to improve job placement for adult students in a world where the job market demands a higher skill level than what the students currently possess. The project scope is to re-design a job placement program EYC ran from 2012–2017 to better support employment for university students that enables them to put their knowledge into practice and become more competitive, as well as to earn an income to be able to sustain themselves and their families, as well as their continued education.
Our Working Approach — As most, if not all, SAP employees know, Design Thinking is an effective approach used to understand a business challenge, explore ways to solve the problem, and to develop, test, and implement solutions. Of course this is the approach we are using with EYC.
By successfully achieving the project objectives, we anticipate that EYC students will be better equipped with employable skills per industry and market needs, thereby increasing their job opportunities. Measurable goals include: 100% of scholarships student complete university educations, 100% of scholarship students obtain jobs, decrease in scholarship amounts given year over year, higher income earned by placed students.
Week 1 — Our first week was spent in understanding the Cambodian people, culture, education system, the Phnom Penh community, and EYC’s organization. Our activities included interviewing EYC staff members, EYC alumni, and EYC students at 3 of their schools.
The school visits have been the highlight for me so far. EYC’s programs are an after school offering. The students attend state school for half day and then attend EYC after. The younger students attend EYC schools during the afternoon, and the high school aged students attend in the evening.
EYC schools are located in the poorest (slum) communities of Phnom Penh. In these communities, there are dirt roads, no clean water, an abundance of trash filled stagnant water full of hovering bugs and mosquitos. Mosquito bites can be fatal as Malaria and Dengue Fever are carried by the mosquitos. Fortunately, Phnom Penh is a lower risk area from the rest of Cambodia. The homes in these communities consist of shacks having a dozen or so rooms for rent. Each small one-room units are rented by a family of around 8 people. They typically have no electricity, no running water, and one bed.
In most of these communities, the families are at risk of losing their homes and being displaced due to the increasing presence of Chinese investors and developers who want to buy up the land and build sky scrapers, condominiums, casinos, and more.
Security is a real concern for the EYC students, since if they are displaced from their homes, they will likely not be able to continue their educations with EYC.
One of my favorite memories is from a visit to an afternoon class of students aged 9 to 13. During our visits we asked the students to tell us what they want to be when they grow up. A 13 year old boy said “I want to be a Pilot”. We later asked if they had any questions for us and the same boy asked “What does a pilot do?”. I found this so interesting, and later realized was very typical, as so many of the students have ideas of being teachers, doctors, engineers, policemen, fire fighters, engineers, and more, though they really have no idea what it means to be any of those things.
Our visits to the evening classes of older students (ages 15–23) have been equally interesting. While we also heard about the professions to which the students are aspiring, we have consistently heard that they are currently challenged, or fear they will be challenged, with finding jobs, whether part-time, full-time, internships or volunteering, due to lack of adequate English and Computer skills, as well as lack of self-confidence and communication (selling oneself) skills. In addition, there is a growing need for additional language skills, primarily Chinese, as well as Thai and French.
We were fortunate to hear a student describe his experience with EYC’s job placement program in helping him to find a job and get hired. He spoke about the four key skills and abilities needed by the students in successfully finding a job: selling yourself, relevant knowledge and skills, communication, and commitment.
Networking is an incredibly important aspect for job placement. Most students rely on who they know (family, friends, relatives of friends, friends of friends, etc.) to find jobs. It’s definitely more about who you know than what you know. But, if they can speak English, can type, and have basic computer skills, they are likely to find some type of job. There is also an aspect of what they call “corruption” especially with public/government jobs. Highly qualified candidates are frequently passed up for jobs because the employer will only hire family members or friends.
Week 2 — During this week, we met with a prospective employer, Slash (https://www.slash.co/), a hi-tech boutique specialized in Web, mobile, AI and Blockchain. Their mission is to help lean startups and innovators at enterprises build amazing products. Slash is a very small (17 employees) IT start-up having a very creative, open, friendly environment.
Our key learnings from this visit were that the types of employees Slash is looking to hire are not only candidates having the needed technical skills, but also having characteristics of adaptability, flexibility, responsibility, commitment, teamwork, and ability to continuously learn. We also learned that Slash has a true desire to help people, especially the Cambodian people, and was very open to future conversations with EYC about job placement for EYC students.
We also met with one of the top Cambodian recruitment and job placement agencies, CamHR (http://www.camhr.com/). While CamHR began as an online job posting and search website, they have expanded into recruitment for Cambodian companies. Their recruitment activities are primarily servicing Chinese developers in construction and real estate.
We learned a great deal about the current job market in Phnom Penh and the required skills and characteristics of the employers which CamHR is servicing. It was nice to hear that CamHR strives to find positive experiences for the candidates, not just to fill the jobs. And, they seemed open to discussing with EYC the potential to partner with them in placement of the EYC students.
We have now begun the process of brainstorming and prototyping solutions using Design Thinking methods and techniques, bywhich we have been guiding and coaching EYC staff to develop potential solutions for a higher impact and more scalable job placement program. In the coming week, we will work toward prioritization of solutions and validating their feasibility and value.
Observations — Over the course of these past two weeks, all of the many interviews and conversations, I have the following observations.
- Cambodian people are incredibly friendly, warm, and generally happy
- Cambodians continue healing from their civil war in the 1970’s, the rule of Khmer Rouge (Cambodian communists) and later the followers of the Communist Party who infamously carried out the Cambodian genocide. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge) If interested, watch these movies…The Killing Fields, First They Killed My Father, City of Ghosts.
- The growing investment by Chinese developers and investors is having a significant impact on the Cambodian communities, job market, society. While this may be having a positive impact in some ways, there is growing concern by the Cambodian people about the changes happening to their country and communities.
- The Cambodian education system is viewed by the Cambodian people as being inadequate. Typical schools are only half day and students do not learn the needed skills for the job market. As a result, NGO’s like EYC exist to fill the gaps that the education system is not.
- The Cambodian culture is one of Altruism. This is an incredible desire by the Cambodians to help each other and to help their society. Young adults are frequently volunteering at NGO’s in order to give back and to help others, especially those who have themselves been serviced by an NGO.
I am continually inspired by someone I meet or something I experience each day, causing me to pause and reflect on my own values, and to think about the possibilities we can all create in the world if we each give something of ourselves to help others and to help the world in which we live, and in which our future generations will live.
Having fun as well — While we have all been working very long and tiring days, we have also managed to have fun as a team, whether it’s hanging out at the pool in the evening, going out for group dinners, Monday movie night, or a weekend getaway to explore Cambodia. While it is incredibly rewarding working with the NGO’s and gaining the invaluable experiences thus far, it is equally rewarding to expand our network within SAP, develop new relationships with the team members, and to learn about our different cultures, backgrounds, experiences, and talents.
Stay tuned for more to come about the final weeks of our SAP Social Sabbatical….
