Every single one of the 1,600 young people trained at Sala Baï have found work. The fact that training is constantly adapted to new market requirements, often through skills-based sponsorship programmes, is one of the key factors underlying this success.
Technical training, whether theoretical or practical, lies at the heart of the Sala Baï course as it accounts for 70% of the teaching. In order to keep abreast of changes in the market and meet the requirements of hotels, it is vital that our teachers continue to receive training. This quest for excellence is the cornerstone of Agir pour le Cambodge’s strategy and, in a rapidly changing socio-economic context, improving the skills of teachers has become all the more important since the Sala Baï diploma achieved recognition in all 10 ASEAN countries.
Consequently, skills-based sponsorship has been or will be put in place for all of the courses taught at Sala Baï. The La Rochelle Hotel School is one of the school’s partners. Every year, three cooking and restaurant teachers spend two weeks at Sala Baï. They focus on teaching new techniques, using new ingredients, working on presentation of dishes and on the creativity of recipes, both in terms of taste and visual impression. These two weeks of skills transfer are topped off with a gourmet dinner: Great chefs meet great students (watch video). The La Rochelle Hotel School intends to continue and expand this exchange. From 2020, at least two Sala Baï cooking and restaurant teachers will spend a month learning new techniques and methods in La Rochelle.
In the same spirit of open exchange, the Front Office teachers will complete a professional immersion programme in hotels belonging to the Swissbel Hotel group in South-East Asia.
And Beauty Therapy has not been left out! This training course, which was introduced in 2015, was developed with the support of Sisley. Four years following the launch of this course, Sisley has once again offered to support Agir pour le Cambodge by updating the programme, servicing the beauty centre’s equipment and providing the teachers with training.
Agir pour le Cambodge would like to thank all of its partners who are helping to provide young Cambodians from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds with high-quality training. This is a wonderful human story of sharing skills and experiences.
