JWOC’s Access programme inspires poor kids to learn new skills

 


Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

The ‘Journeys within Our Community’ (JWOC), a NGO created an Access Programme to provide English language skills and other life skills for poor children in Siem Reap in order to improve their job and educational prospects in the future.   

The US Ambassador to Cambodia, Patrick Murphy who led the embassy delegation to visit and meet the students who studied at the JWOC on Thursday, said that the US was pleased to help Cambodians, especially the Cambodian youths who are the new human resource to have basic English skills and other life skills so that they will have better jobs and educational prospects in their lives. 

The Access Programme, which was founded by the US Department of State via the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, aimed to support Cambodians from economically disadvantaged communities who have limited access or opportunity to further their educational development, particularly in English language training, Murphy said.

“I am really, very, very impressed and proud of the guys who have participated in this programme. It is a great programme,” Murphy told the students during a meeting at the JWOC.


“I hope that you all will have success with your studies with this programme to learn English language, leadership, team work and other life skills,” he said.   

Mok Boda, Access Programme Teacher at JWOC, told Khmer Times that the JWOC had four programmes, comprising Scholarship, Better Futures, Youth Leadership Project, and Access Programme.

The Access Programme aims to equip students with effective English language communication and critical thinking skills through meaningful interaction, cooperative and student-centred learning strategies, interest and age-appropriate activities, and real-life application, he said.

Currently there are about 200 students from the poor families in Siem Reap and from other provinces near Siem Reap attending the JWOC’s Access Programme, he added.

He emphasised that most of them are the high school students studying are at grade 10 or 11.   

The training is free but the students have to pass an examination and interviews conducted by the JWOC’s education officers, he said.

The training is over a two year period.  After completion, the JWOC will award completion of study certificates, he added.

“Through the Access Programmes, the students will study English, computers, leadership skills for life and work, engagement skills and how to write a CV to apply for jobs,” Boda told Khmer Times.

“On behalf of the teachers here, I have noted that since the students have engaged in the Access Programme, they had made a lot of progress and understand the skills they have learned,” he said.

“I strongly hope that after they complete their graduation with the JWOC, they will have better job opportunities and other educational prospects, such as, student exchange or study abroad,” he added.

After the students complete the two-year-training successfully, the JWOC will help them to find jobs with other local or international companies, associations or non-governmental organisations in Cambodia, Boda said.

Vin Sonech, 16, one of the students, said that currently, she is studying at grade 11 of the Samdech Euv High School in Siem Reap province. 

 “I decided to study with the JWOC because I wanted to learn English language, computer and other life skills in order to improve my communication and speaking and other life skills,  so that I can have a better job to support my parents,” Sonech told Khmer Times on Thursday.

“Since I had studied the Access Programme, I can write and speak English with foreign people. I have computer skills, time management and other new life skills,” she said. 

According to a report of the US Embassy in Phnom Penh obtained by the Khmer Times, the US State Department’s English Access Microscholarship Programme (Access Programme) provides a foundation of English language skills to talented 13 to 20-year-old-youth from economically disadvantaged background through a two-year-programme with after school classes and intensive sessions.

The programme helps participants to develop English language skills that lead to better job and education prospects.  Since 2004, over 205,000 students in more than 80 countries have participated in the Access Programme, including more than 1,500 in Cambodia with a total funding of more than $ 1.7 million. 

The programme aims to increase participants’ English language skills through general English courses for a period of two years or a minimum of 360 hours and has a completion rate of 90%.

Currently, 140 Cambodian students are studying English through the programme in Kampot, Battambang, Prey Veng, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu and Siem Reap provinces. 

The programme’s success over the past 18 years and has inspired many of its participants to pursue advanced degrees, tutor their fellow classmates in English, become teachers, work as reporters at local radio stations, become interpreters and translators to increase organisational communication with foreign counterparts, and aspire towards higher positions in the private sectors. 




 


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