The document summarizes an iCamp event held in July 2017 that brought together organizations to address challenges rural Cambodian youth face in accessing employment information. Participants identified five initial challenges and voted to focus on improving communications of opportunities, skills development, and information on working abroad. They developed three prototype solutions: a job information hotline, a mobile skills app, and an international labor migration hotline. The event aimed to form partnerships to further develop solutions to connect rural youth to employment resources.

1. Connecting Rural Youth to
Employment Information:
An iCamp Prototyping Event
InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia
July 27th, 2017 - National Employment Agency Phnom Penh

2. In July 2017, the InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia team organized an iCamp at The National Employment Agency in
Phnom Penh. The day’s focus was on how to help youth in rural areas have better access to employment
information. Participants from nine institutions from government and NGOs, collaborated together.

3. A full list of participating organizations:
Ministry of Education Youth and Sports
The National Employment Agency
InSTEDD iLab SEA
Kampuchea Action for Primary Education (KAPE)
Habitat for Humanity
Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC)
BBC Media Action
World Vision Cambodia
Friend International
Freelance Consultant for SPIDER project
Student from Royal University of Phnom Penh

4. Five challenges to rural youth
employment access were raised by
participants:
1. How to help youth receive employment
information (NEA)
2. How to help youth build their own start-up
small scale business (MoEYS)
3. How to help youth to understand about
processes and requirements to work abroad
(MoEYS)
4. How to help youth on soft and hard skills
to match the current job market (KAPE &
BBC)
5. How to encourage youth to participate in
community volunteer work (MoEYS)

5. Three challenges were voted by
participants for further discussing,
brainstorming and prototyping:
1. How to help youth receive
employment information.
2. How to help youth with soft and
hard skills to match the current job
market.
3. How to help youth to understand
the processes and requirements to
work abroad.

6. Understanding the Problem

7. The participants were divided into
three groups to better understand the
problems associated with the
selected challenges:
How can we improve communications
to rural youth?
How can we improve the soft and
hard skills of rural youth?
How can we provide information on
the requirements for working abroad
to rural youth?

8. Creating and Validating Potential Prototypes

9. Once the groups brainstormed, debated, and sketched out their prototype visions, they then shared their ideas
with the rest of the groups, received additional feedback, and landed on three design prototypes.

10. The Three Design Prototypes

11. 1. How do we help rural youth receive employment information?
Provide job seekers with free access to employment information from the National
Employment Agency via a hotline. Enable youth to register to NEA to receive relevant
updates via phone calls.

12. 2. How do we help rural youth with soft and hard skills to match
the current job market?
To respond to this challenge, the team came up with an e-counselling mobile application
which contains contents of soft skills and hard skills. With the application, students can
complete a self assessment and the application will provide suggestions on the field that
matches their strong skills.

13. 3. How do we help rural youth to understand the processes and
requirements to work abroad?
To help the migrant workers receive information about the migration process, risks and
costs, the team proposed an information hotline.This hotline will contain all public
services and embassy contacts for migration workers to contact before they go to
another country for work.

14. At the end of the day, the iCamp reached its goal of three design prototypes from the initially defined five
challenges. The InSTEDD iLab, along with the leading organization of each of the three prototypes, will continue
to progress the development of these proposed solutions.

15. Another successful iCamp brings another opportunity to form new relationships, and new partnerships.
iCamp events are just one example of how the iLab Southeast Asia is
connecting subject matter experts, designers, and programmers on a local level.

16. To stay updated on iCamp events, visit ilabsea.org.

17. Special thanks to

18. To learn more about
The iLab Southeast Asia
please visit:
www.ilabsoutheastasia.org
/instedd /ilabsea /ilabsea