Her Excellency, Nhem Morokat from the Ministry of Women Affairs endorses APHEDAs' formal accreditation of the Hairdressing and Beauty Program, a first for Cambodia.

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA organised an Opening Ceremony on Teacher Training in Hairdressing & Beauty and Small Business Management on 15 October 2014 at Eden Park Restaurant.

Presided by H.E.Nhem Morokat, Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Women's Affairs, the  event hosted 36 participants from 6 Women Development Centres and included 8 teacher trainers.

The objective was to seek assistance in providing certification and recognition for technical trainers in Hairdressing and Beauty from the Ministry of Labour. 

The Training of Trainer project is designed to deliver high quality training courses for rural poor women as a "Second Education Opportunity", leading to village cooperative groups.

At the Opening ceremony, Lim Soksan, Program Co-ordinator reported that APHEDA has been in Cambodia since 1984 focusing on Adult Education, promoting Sustainable Livelihood for rural women and farmers. We are currently working in partnership with 6 WDCs, providing vocational training education in Hairdressing & Beauty, Garment & Handicraft making, Food Processing and Weaving.  We have trained in total 387 women over the past 4 years and have trained in other vocations of fish farming & vegetable growing to more than 1,600 farmers of which at least 50% are women. Social Education included in the training are: nutrition, HIV/AIDS, hygiene and domestic violence protection. 

The Training of Trainer project is designed to deliver high quality training courses for rural poor women as a "Second Education Opportunity", leading to village cooperative groups. 

The Hairdressing and Beauty curriculum has been provided, since 2010, by the Canberra Institute of Technologys' Gail Vest. Her colleague, Emma Luscombe, 2014 Young Business Women of the Year and ACT Finalist for the prestigious Telstra Australian Business Awards, and a certified Educator with the AVEDA Institute, was invited for her Small Business/Co-operative Management expertise. 

H.E Nhem Morokat, who supports APHEDA's program 200%, said the WDCs of the 4 provinces (Kampot, Kampong Chhang,Kampong Cham and  Kampong Speu), were initially established in 1995 by the Japanese Government. Now it has increased to 14 centres, and she has invited APHEDA to extend its program to those WDCs. 

She concurred, that providing economic empowerment for women was to enhance an income generation opportunity, through decent jobs. The development of micro, small and medium enterprises is important for household and social economics. The challenges of WDCs are lacking skills such as 1) methods monitoring and evaluation on ex-trainees, 2) Database on ex-trainees, who are using skills after their graduation, 3) Global quality and measurable monitoring system …etc.

These challenges need all of us to find a solution; therefore, H.E Morokat urged centre directors to pay attention and improve any negative work practice, for the WDCs improvement. On the other hand, the partnership between WDCs and APHEDA as the service provider in technology and training, is very strong.....

APHEDA's SLOGAN "Training with no job is like the frog that lives with no water"

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