Background

Background

Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) is an international and intergovernmental organization, established in 1965 to promote regional cooperation in education, science, and culture. To achieve this, it has developed 26 regional centers of excellence located across 10/11 Member Countries. These centers are focusing on their expertise as each offers research and development in one theme of one key area (education, science, culture).

 

A workshop on Establishing a New SEAMEO Center in Cambodia was held on 27-29 July 2015 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia organized by MoEYS Cambodia and participated by various stakeholders including SEAMEO VOCTECH, SEAMEO SEAMOLEC, and SEAMEO Secretariat. During the workshop, important and relevant documents were developed for the preparation on the establishment of a new SEAMEO Regional Centre for Technical Education Development (TED) in Cambodia. Further, at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Education and Training: Making Skills Development Work for the Future that was held on 3-5 August 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it was highlighted the commitment of the Governments in the Asia-Pacific region in ensuring quality education and skills development for sustainable future in the region.

Subsequent to a great deal of in-Country consultations, MOEYS Cambodia finally submitted the letter of intent on the establishment of SEAMEO TED in Cambodia on 27 June 2016. Then, at the SEAMEO Executive Committee (EC) Meeting held in August 2016 in Bangkok, the SEAMEO Secretariat on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), Cambodia highlighted the need for establishing a SEAMEO Regional Centre specialized in Technical Education and Cambodia’s willingness to take the initiative to establish and host the proposed Centre. The EC took note and supported the request from MOEYS Cambodia on the proposal on establishing a SEAMEO Regional Centre for TED in Cambodia and to seek the endorsement of the 39th SEAMEO High Officials Meeting on the said proposal to the SEAMEO Council for approval.

Finally SEAMEO TED was established by the royal government of Cambodia under the sub-degree No 107 dated 27 June 20217 and endorsed by the SEAMEO Council on 25 July 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Technical Education Development (SEAMEO TED) is one of the 26 SEAMEO centres, which is located in the Kingdom of Cambodia. It is under umbrella of the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS) and the SEAMEO Secretariat. SEAMEO TED has governing board members from 11 SEAMEO Member countries including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,  Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. The organization’s highest policy-making body is the SEAMEO Council, which comprises the 11 Southeast Asian education ministers, and the SEAMEO Secretariat is the coordinating body. It is located in Bangkok, Thailand.

SEAMEO TED is working on SEAMEO Priority Area Number 4

Dr. Gatot Hari Priowirjanto, Former Director of SEAMEO Secretariat at

A workshop on Establishing a New SEAMEO Center in Cambodia which

was held on 27-29 July 2015 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia organized by MOEYS and SEAMES

SEAMEO TED is one of 26 SEAMEO centres/networks in Southeast Asia to assist SEAMEO member countries in identifying technical education problems and finding alternative solutions for sustainable human resource development through technical education. The establishment of SEAMEO TED is to support the SEAMEO priority area number 4 of the seven priorities (2015-2035), which is “Promoting technical and vocational education and training (TVET).”

As an organization that has continued to nurture human capacities and explored the peoples’ fullest potential, the SEAMEO maintains its work and aspirations for development with peoples of the region to make lives better in quality and equity in education, preventive health education, culture, and tradition, information and communication technology, languages, poverty alleviation and agriculture and natural resources.

The relevant areas of SEAMEO include priority 2, addressing barriers to inclusion by providing access to basic learning opportunities to all learners through innovation in education delivery and management to provide for the previously inaccessible and vulnerable groups; priority 6, promoting harmonization in higher education and research; and priority 7, adopting a 21st-century curriculum by pursuing a radical reform through systematic analysis of knowledge, skills, and values needed to effectively respond to changing global contexts, particularly to the ever-increasing complexity of the Southeast Asian economic, sociocultural, and political environment, with ASEAN ideals in building ASEAN community.

The Scope of Program

The scope of SEAMEO TED focus on trying to better benefit to teachers in 4 areas of vocational-technical education at the secondary level including:

(1) Mechanics/Electronics and Manufacturing, Automobile

(2) Agriculture/Fisheries/ Animal Science

(3), Computer Science/ IT

(4), Hospitality and Tourism

These four areas will be the concerned in its activities proposed for the developmental or strategic plans.

 

Director’s Message

Dr Songheang Ai

Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Technical Education Development (SEAMEO TED) is a regional center supporting and identifying issues and challenges in technical education at secondary education level. With a strong financial support as a contribution for the region from the royal government of Cambodia, and technical support from the SEAMEO secretariat located in Bangkok, Thailand, SEAMEO TED has made it possible for technical education teachers, technical and vocational high school management, and supporting administrators to be raised technically and academically in terms of public relations and partnership, research and development, and technical education and training.

This report highlights momentum of success and achievements of SEAMEO TED for fiscal year 2019/2020. A new trend transforms education from the traditional stream, called general education, to technical education stream to cater for school-to-work approach. To be productive right after, technical education at secondary education level plagues the region in a recent decade. This trend was originated from Germany,​that has been implemented successfully as a dual system for secondary education level. This successful system was spread out to Japan, South Korea, China, etc. to meet the labor market needs.

Nowadays we live in a new era of Industry 4.0 enabling people to catch up with technology in order to survive and transform our daily lives. For example, internet of things, artificial intelligent, big data, industrial robotics, digital technology, 3D printing, and bio-chemical innovation are the things that people have to be aware of in terms of manufacturing and massive production. Most things will be done remotely to save time and workforce. In this regard, technical education plays an integral part in supporting people in up-skilling and communicating with robots. Technical education can make some jobs disappear and some other jobs emerge resulted from Industry 5.0. The connection between human and machine is so highly technological advancement.

I hope that the progress of SEAMEO TED can contribute to the advancement and betterment of technology, particularly for students. Finally, the school-to-work system for technical education will be plagued the region transforming youth to become a productive citizen at all costs.

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