Hospitality Training for Disadvantaged Youths

1- Summary

Le Tonle training guesthouse and restaurant is a social enterprise project of the Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT), a non-profit NGO in Cambodia. Le Tonle Training Guesthouse and Restaurant aims to provide free theoretical and practical training to young disadvantaged Cambodians in the area of tourism and hospitality such as front office, housekeeping, cooking and hospitality. By providing these skills in the short term, vulnerable youths are able to obtain varied and worthwhile careers and are able to live by themselves independently and support their family by sending some of their earnings back home. In the long term, the training is providing an opportunity for youth to develop themselves further in tourism professions and giving them general knowledge, which will enable them to take careers as one of the country's human resources. This will help solve the human development program of Cambodia and lift the poverty rate in the future. According to the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) from 2018, thirty-five percent of Cambodians are living in poverty, especially in the countryside.

2- About Le Tonle

Le Tonle provides 100% scholarship for youth to learn from certified trainers and practice at the same time at Le Tonle guesthouse and restaurant.

Le Tonle is a social enterprise which aims to:

To contribute to poverty reduction and ecological conservation of Cambodia by introducing responsible, sustainable tourism and by training the local population to cater to tourists.

To give theoretical and practical training to young disadvantaged Cambodians in the different areas of tourism professions to enable them to obtain varied and worthwhile careers.

To provide quality training in response to the requirements of tourism professionals in Cambodia.

To integrate the values of responsible tourism in the training.

3- Our 8-month training program

The Tonle training program is recognized by the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia under the National Committees of Tourism Professional as a vocational certificate. Trainees are trained by our experienced trainers, many of whom were our graduates from 2008. Most of the training periods are focused on practicing and interacting with the tourism industry by supporting trainees to develop generic competencies such as computer skills and English proficiency.

4- Progress report

Operations:

The operation of Le Tonle has experienced fluctuations in performance attributed to the low recovery of international tourist arrivals to Kratie Town and Cambodia as a whole. The international recovery stands at 30% compared to pre-pandemic levels, while the local government recovery is slightly higher at 40%. In response to this challenging environment, the management of Le Tonle has strategically focused on sustainability and income generation to support training and operational improvements.

Management Initiatives:

Over the last three months, while guests are few in the low season, we have completed all current training, and have been busy developing a new business plan. For the coming two years we will suspend the formal training, but to maintain our spirit of training, and to continue our commitment to Cambodian youth, we will start an apprenticeship program for a smaller number of participants. In the next few days, we will close our current appeal on GlobalGiving, and launch a new appeal to support our apprentices.

Links:

http://www.letonle.org

Links:

• Le Tonle Guesthouse and Restaurant website