Smart Axiata’s University Student Development Program Preparing Cambodia’s Students for Leadership in a Digital Age

Smart Axiata in a collaboration with Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and Ministry of Post and Telecommunication organized the University Student Development Program known as USDP in Siem Reap province between 15th and 27th November 2018. The program was organized to equip university students essential skills and attitudes for their promising career launch and prepare the students for working environment.

In the program, students were required to take a number of challenges including business idea competition, financial statement task, CEO challenge and press conference challenge. These challenges were besides trainings on soft skills, leadership and digital skills. Students must make business plans so that their products could get into Thailand’s consumer market. This was a requirement in the business idea competition. For the financial statement challenge, students needed to make a financial plan for their business. The CEO challenge required students to role play as Chief Executive Office, Chief Financial Officer as well as position themselves as other senior officials in a company. Students roled play as representatives of an automobile company in a press conference and responded questions from journalists, families of victims and stakeholders in a case which problems from car safety ballons costed lives of the automobile consumers. This was the situation students got into in the press conference challenge.

Ms. Priyanith KEO, a senior student majoring in Political Science and International Relations from Paragon International University said that self-exploration, leadership and teamwork were the central themes she had learnt from the Smart Axiata’s USDP. In teamwork and leadership, the senior students got trainings and challenges so that she could obtain skills related to team goal setting, team culture building and listening skills. Priyanith also became more confident with herself, which is due to advice, assessment and experience sharing she had got from the USDP’s trainers. The Political Science & IR student from ParagonIU claimed.

Mr. Sokhom POV, a sophomore student at the ParagonIU’s Department of Management of Information Systems and a USDP participant said that his participation in the program was motivated by the information sharings from his friends and his urge to personally develop skills and attitudes. Sokhom continued that the program pressured him in many ways including a hectic schedule, a need to learn fast about new team members whom he had never known before and a huge gap to improve himself in a short time so that he could help his team and not be a burden for his team to a next stage.

Ms. Chandevipha HOURN, a third-year Business Administration student from ParagonIU shared that USDP is a very unique experience to her. Chandevipha continued that she had never participated in any similar programs and supposed to propose the USDP-styled learning platform into her Human Resources classroom. The junior student from ParagonIU was also amazed by the promising, hardworking and willing-to-learn qualities of her fellow participants.

It should be noted that three out of the eight-best participants with offers of internship for two months at Malaysia’ s Axiata company comes from Paragon International University. Other students of the eight best come from universities such as Institute of Technology Cambodia, Kirirom Institute of Technology and Aceleda Institute of Business.