Students at our three centres in Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam all face a decisive period at some point during their course: work placements in companies. How do they prepare for them? Whose job is it to help them? How do our partner companies get involved? Find out how our students are assisted through this important step towards long-term employability.

At our training centres in Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam, all the students (particularly in their second year) have to do an internship to complete their course. The length of the internship varies from one centre to another: in Cambodia, it’s four and a half months (June to September), in the Philippines, 10 months (June to March) and in Vietnam, it takes place in two phases, first a 10-week one (June-July) and a second one for 20 weeks during their 3rd-year training.
Following education reforms, the length of internships may change so that our courses are aligned with the new school timetables and the changes made by the governments in the host countries.

Intensive preparation

Our professional training, development activities and career guidance are designed to prepare our students, right from day one, for the corporate world. The first step towards this is the internship.
The staff in charge of training help our students develop the necessary skillset: English, professional skills and soft skills.
All our students therefore have lessons on how to write a CV and cover letter as well as mock interviews. Additional lessons and activities are also organised at the centres: a seminar on getting to know the corporate worlds and company organisations in Cambodia, customer relations in the Philippines, Law in Vietnam.

Mock interview in Cambodia

2018 Internship Job fair in the Philippines

Interview workshop with volunteers from Société Générale Singapore (Sharjil Hannan and Raphaëlle Morand)

All these activities are run by our teachers or volunteers (alumni, corporate partners, etc.)

Overall, I think this internship program is a great program and all the activities as well. Since our students are really new to the working environment, mock interviews help them get ready and do better in their real internship interviews thanks to feedback from their teachers. Most students have great soft skills and professional skills and these training sessions boost their confidence. This internship program is a great resource to help our students prepare and improve themselves for their career journey and it also helps increase the reputation and mission of PN Cambodia.

This year we have 49 students that are being placed with various local and international companies based in Phnom Penh. 50% of our students will be hired by the company after their internship. One good example is Prudential, who took three students and in the past, they have always hired our students after their internships end. So we can expect that all of students will be hired if their performance is good.

Lavy HOU

English Trainer, Passerelles numériques Cambodia

Dedicated teams

Students thus get support from the local teams to prepare them for their first corporate experience. And let’s not forget the considerable work done by the external relations teams: they’re with the students every step of the way, finding work placements, monitoring their progress once in the company and carrying out appraisals.

With their expertise in the employment market, the staff can help students develop the skills required and then highlight them during their interviews.
They are also in charge of contacting the companies to find internships for the students, which involves the challenging task of negotiating payment. In the countries we operate in, there’s a real need for qualified workers, which is fortunate for us: companies are looking for talent and often take on interns at the end of their work placement.
The teams in charge of contacting the companies also have to monitor and assess students’ progress with the tutors, who help the students in the companies. Students are assessed on their technical IT skills and interpersonal skills (communication, teamwork, adaptability, etc.)

It was all worth it coming all the way to Cebu from my hometown to be a part of this organisation and contribute to its mission. PN’s high-quality, intensive training paired with ten months of on-the-job training gives the students a chance to compete in the IT Industry and eventually take their families out of the poverty cycle.

Thessa TORRE

External Relations Coordinator, Passerelles numériques Philippines

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News in 2018 for our students in Vietnam

In PN Vietnam, to make students more independent and responsible, they now have to find their own internship. Nhu Thi Hong TRUONG, in charge of external relations for PN Vietnam, told us about this first experience. “This new program is a great opportunity for our second-year students to assess the knowledge and skills that the current market needs. Being in charge of this program, I had chance to work closely with Education and Training teams to understand more about our students’ abilities as well as their difficulties, and help them overcome them. From finding out about the company, applying, the interview and the tests, students worked on their own and I’m very proud of them so far! The result is already positive: 50% of them have been offered an internship. One word to the students, ‘’Keep up the good work during your internship!’’

Companies are central to the process

Our partner companies are actively involved in this process, and at various different stages: before the internships, to help train students (CV-writing, mock interviews, etc.), obviously at the interview stage, and when the students join their company, and when they subsequently tutor/mentor them.
Their cooperation with Passerelles numériques is essential and allows our students to work in a quality professional environment and get the most out of their first work experience. We talked to three of them about this (click on the photos to read about their experience).

Mr Savra PRUM

Mr Savra PRUM

HR Executive - Truemoney

 

”Representing my whole my team I would like to thank PN Cambodia for allowing to participate in their internship program. I really enjoyed interviewing the students. I was really surprised that most of them have good English and soft skills. They came to the interviews well prepared and with a great understanding of what the company expects of them. They have a clear goals and visions for their future.”
Mr John Mark YCOY

Mr John Mark YCOY

Application Support Team Lead - Accenture Philippines

 

”I worked indirectly with PN Interns being their primary point of escalations for any concerns relating to work. It was a joy seeing the interns grow and improve from being meek and silent, to becoming confident. It makes me feel proud that they applied my soft skills teachings and got positive responses especially during their mock job interviews. They have been easy to train and acted like sponges that absorbed all learnings shared to them both in their projects and with my counselling with them. In connection to that, I’m glad that PN Philippines is fully utilising their connections and working things out towards developing quality IT professionals by having their scholars do their internships with the best companies in the field. With the level of professionalism and quality that we’re getting both from the PN staff and especially the interns, I don’t see any reason why we will ever stop with the partnership.”
Mr. Vũ Minh HOÀNG

Mr. Vũ Minh HOÀNG

Product Director - SEADEV

 

”We are taking PN Vietnam interns because they are qualified. They are hardworking, smart and self-motivated. They are learning in a well-thought out curriculum which includes technical and soft skills training and actively get to work with IT companies in the early stage of their course.
Also, our team at Seadev strongly believes in what PNV is doing. Therefore, we are willing to contribute and support you in any way we can.
At SEADEV, the interns are expected to show their qualities and attitude to the company culture. There are three main areas we focus on: – Teamwork: do the interns belong in our team? Do our current members enjoy working with them? Do they have leadership skills or not? – Approach for learning: how do the interns learn new things or what are their attitudes towards it?
– Passion: Do they love their job? Do they have the passion to keep up with an industry that changes every single day? Do they have the love to create and deliver excellent products to clients?
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