Cambodia's Skills Development Fund Visits HCSREL for a Singapore Study Visit
· Cambodia, Skills Development Fund, TVET, skills development, Singapore study visit, HCSREL
On 22 October 2026, HCSREL welcomed a delegation from Cambodia's Skills Development Fund (SDF), led by Chief Executive Officer Ky Sokkim, for a study visit in Singapore.
SDF is Cambodia's national skills trust fund, established under the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Piloted in 2018 and formally launched as a trust fund in 2023, it co-finances demand-driven training so that enterprises can access job-relevant upskilling and reskilling at reduced cost — and so that training providers build programmes around what industry actually needs.
What SDF does
Its work runs through three channels:
- Training Fund — co-financing upskilling, reskilling and pre-employment training in priority sectors.
- Networking supports — connecting enterprises, training providers and institutions so training tracks real labour-market demand.
- Strategic interventions — aligning training with national policy and future workforce needs, under Cambodia's Vision 2050.
SDF is governed by a multi-stakeholder board chaired by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, with the Office of the Council of Ministers as vice-chair and members drawn from the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, the Supreme National Economic Council, the Council for the Development of Cambodia, and the country's employer and industry federations. Its purpose is narrow on paper and ambitious in practice: make training that firms will pay for, at a quality workers will value.
Why the conversation matters
Cambodia and Singapore are running different economies with different constraints, and both are trying to answer the same question — how do you co-finance skills so that the training is demand-driven rather than supply-driven? Singapore's system leans on enterprise-led, competency-based continuing education; Cambodia's fund is building a co-financing model of its own, with employers and training providers sharing cost and ownership. A study visit is where the abstractions get tested against what someone else actually built.
HCSREL hosts visiting delegations working on skills, circular economy and the green transition. For enquiries, write to team@hcsrel.com.