The Girls’ Education Initiative (GEI) staff conducted oneday training workshops on career counseling to student council leaders,chief/vice chief class monitors and career counsellors in 12 target highschools from 5 districts in 2 provinces (Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum) on 26-28February 2015. 498 (281 girls) students from grades 7-12, and 21 (4 female) careercounselors attended the training workshops.

The purpose of the training was to build the capacity of studentcouncil leaders and class monitors to be able to assess future jobpossibilities for their classmates and to identify students who were unsure abouttheir education or their future career goals to receive one on one counselingwith career counselors; to identify jobs in the commune, provinces and country;and to teach the students about goal setting.

The students could evaluate themselves on education andtheir goals after graduating high school. About 10% of the total studentsneeded to receive one on one counseling with a career counselors which meansthey were not sure if they wanted to continue onto higher education and/or theydid not know what to do if they intended to stop learning, and/or did not knowhow to search for jobs if they were interested in a particular career. Theyconducted a role playing exercise with the career counselor regarding one onone counseling and were confident in sharing their concerns. They also enjoyedenergizer games organized by the project.

A grade 12 GEI scholar from Kbal O High School said that herbest subject is Khmer and wants to be a literature teacher in her community asshe loves teaching children and it is a career in which she is able to staynear her family.

The students were eager to understand their starting pointsas students at a crucial decision making point in their lives, and thenlearning what to do and how to achieve their goals for the future.

By the end of the workshop, the students and careercounselors prepared work plans to continue teaching other students about jobidentification for the future.