Laoteng Chheuy
Global populations are now gray. Roughly 503 million people aged 65 and above are now living across Asia and the Pacific. They account for about 60 percent of the world’s aging demography.
According to the World Economic Forum, this number will double to about 1 billion in the next 25 years. Japan, South Korea, and Germany are among the countries with rapidly aging populations and low fertility rates.
These countries face challenges in caring for their senior populations while also experiencing domestic labor shortages.
Cambodia should position itself to respond to this demand by investing in the skill development of care workers, who could pursue prosperous work abroad.
Cambodia and Her Neighbors
The nursing care sector is a highly emerging industry. Since the late 2010s, Japan, with a rapidly aging population, has been seeking international caregivers, especially from Southeast Asia, to serve as technical intern trainees (TITs) and specified skilled workers (SSWs).
However, while nurses and care workers in other countries, including India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, often pursue opportunities abroad, the same is not true for Cambodia.
The primary goal of nursing education in Cambodia is to match the demand within the country, owing to the country’s lack of human resources for many years, posed by the impact from the long-lasting civil war.
Out of all the countries sending migrant workers to work in the Japanese care economy, Cambodia contributes the lowest numbers of high-skill professional care workers.
Vietnam, contributing the highest number, sent 5,142 professionals between 2018 and 2020. In comparison, Cambodia has contributed only 110 technical intern trainees and 18 nursing care professionals since 2010.
Due to high demand for qualified care workers in aging countries like Japan, Cambodia should prepare candidates without a nursing background to be certified as professional caregivers.
With its young population, Cambodia is well-suited to supply the workforce for this emerging care market. An abundant young workforce means many people are seeking jobs, both domestically and internationally, including opportunities to work abroad in the care sector.
On the other hand, several ASEAN countries, like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, have aging populations, and fewer workers are available to provide care services.
Strengthening Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) for TVET
Cambodia should take advantage of the opportunities of the growing global care economy and position itself as a reliable regional supplier of professional caregivers by investing in public-private partnerships (PPP) to develop TVET programs for upskilling Cambodian care workers.
At present, Cambodia’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programs focus primarily on areas such as engineering and technical skills like mechanics, construction, electronics, ICT-computer design, and digital skills and the hospitality and tourism sectors. There is no caregiving course at any TVET institution.
To build a competent healthcare workforce through PPPs, the process ought to begin with clear institutional coordination. The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training and the Ministry of Health should form a joint PPP steering committee tasked with defining the scope of partnership and setting accreditation standards, regulations, and quality assurance.
This body should serve as the central authority to coordinate and oversee all PPP activities for TVET caregiving courses.
After the steering committee is established, the government and the key partners, like polytechnic institutions, private healthcare enterprises, and NGO-led non-formal training centers, can co-develop and co-finance short, affordable courses that directly respond to caregiving industry demand.
Such multi-shareholder collaboration and engagement would systematically and institutionally help reduce the skills mismatch, improve curriculum relevance, and enhance industry-recognized skills and competencies.
Furthermore, through these collaborative networks, the private sector can contribute modern equipment, technical expertise, and innovation, while public institutions provide oversight, infrastructure, and policy alignment.
This mix of resources and accountability can deliver high-quality and relevant caregiving training.
Designing Caregiving Curriculum
As Cambodia considers a critical step toward building this workforce training ecosystem, it should also learn from the curriculum offered by similar programs in Singapore and Australia.
In Singapore, theoretical and practical training are offered by 47 vocational institutions within Singapore caregiving grant and Skill Future Credit.
A wide range ofcourses provides training, skills and knowledge in focused areas including supporting home personal care, acquiring basic/specific health literacy, managing challenging behaviors, performing home nursing/therapeutic tasks, and adapting the home environment for risk prevention.
Australian College offers a strong training curriculum, with a focus on equipping trainees with skills such as personal care techniques, nutrition and meal planning, and basic healthcare skills to work in residential facilities or home settings as nursing support workers, personal care assistants, or accommodation support workers.
Read More: Opinion: Cambodia’s Skills Revolution – Why TVET Matters Now More Than Ever
Individual courses range in length and time commitment, with durations lasting from two to 12 hours, depending on the content, so that the students are able to comprehensively acquire theoretical understanding and practical skills. A similar structure can be adopted in Cambodia.
Since caregivers are trained exclusively to give personal care, manage the household, manage medication and offer companionship plus emotional support, high school graduates are qualified for the program. Also, they have to be tested on their physical capabilities, as caring involves labor-intensive tasks.
Investing in the training and overseas employment of Cambodian care workers is not only a response to global labor market trends, but it is also a long-term investment in Cambodia’s human capital and economic resilience.
With one of the youngest populations in Southeast Asia, Cambodia can harness this demographic advantage by equipping youth with globally recognized caregiving qualifications and language competencies to access stable and well-compensated jobs abroad, especially in aging economies like Japan, South Korea and Germany.
This strategy could generate significant remittance inflows and raise household incomes. Returnees will bring back expertise and hands-on experience to contribute to Cambodia’s domestic caregiving sector.
Cambodian demographic projections suggest that in the next 25 to 30 years, the proportion of older adults will increase substantially.
The proportion of senior people could double as fertility rates decline and life expectancy rises. By investing in TVET for caregivers pursuing work abroad, Cambodia can also plan ahead for its own caregiving needs.
Laoteng Chheuy is a junior research fellow at the Future Forum, a public policy think tank based in Phnom Penh. This article was written as part of the Future Forum’s Inclusive Policy Fellowship, an endeavor supported by the Australian Government through The Asia Foundation’s Ponlok Chomnes II: Data and Dialogue for Development in Cambodia. This article was first published in Cambodianess.
