Minister of Education, Youth and Sport Hang Chuon Naron said he is committed to enhancing the quality of education at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), which he said plays an important role in training technology-related human resources to higher standards.
He made the pledge at the March 1 inauguration of two new buildings and the graduation ceremony for nearly 5,000 ITC students.
He said the ministry is committed to pushing for training to strengthen the capacity of ITC, which offers degree programmes in science, technology and engineering – all needed to restore and stimulate Cambodia’s economy.
“To achieve a stronger educational quality in line with the government’s vision 2030-2050, the ministry makes an effort to push for training in hard and soft skills by improving the capacity of ITC to have more effective research and training.
“According to the institute, 100 per cent of the students who completed doctoral studies have landed jobs. Students earning a Master’s degree all have jobs and 100 per cent of them pursued their doctoral studies.
“Engineers all have jobs and 99.9 per cent of them are pursuing a Master’s degree. All students who earned their Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering have jobs and those earning Associate’s degrees in engineering all have jobs and 100 per cent of them are pursuing their studies further,” he said.
According to the minister, since 1981 a total of 14,968 students – 2,860 of them women – have graduated from ITC.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who presided over the ceremony, said that investing in education will bring untold benefits for the national development.
“The government will make an effort to build the necessary infrastructure, including schools and new buildings to develop knowledge for our youths because national economic development is indispensable for human resources,” he said.
The two new ITC buildings are the “community knowledge centre” and a building housing the “Construction and Engineering Schools”. These buildings were built within the framework of financing between the Cambodian government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Chuon Naron said that in order to further develop human resources in science, technology and engineering, ITC plans to expand out with new branches this year.
