Strategic Social Marketing and TVET Enrollment in Cambodia: Insights from a National Impact Survey (2018–2020)

4.1 Secondary School Students

The responses from 788 high school students show that a vast majority of them are using social media like Facebook. The social marketing strategy by DLMI has reached 85 % of the respondents. The high school students understood well about the TVET skills set and TVET programs for both scholarship and school fees and they are equally aware of the current labor market demands.

This result indicates that the promotional strategy by DLMI and the public TVET institutions made the high school students realize the pricing strategy and labor market information, and raised their awareness of the importance of TVET. The results of the study show that social marketing, through exhibition events, television, brochures, and social media has contributed to the understanding of the importance of TVET by a vast majority of students. Among students who are studying in TVET, 75 % received information from TV, posters, and Facebook.

The results of the study showed that 1,004 of TVET students (female 61 %) surveyed expressed interest in studying technical skills. Most of them studied in grade 12 or Master’s/Bachelor’s degree in Electricity.

The study also evaluated the marketing mix (4Ps^[1]) which was implemented by DLMI to attract more students to study in TVET. The result shows that 96 % of the TVET students understand well the technical skills and locations of TVET institutions as well as scholarship programs and tuition fees. Approximately 52 % of them were well aware of the TVET qualifications in Cambodia.

The study, moreover, found that about 90 % of the TVET students understood well the labor market information and the important role TVET holds for national development, including priority sectors in Cambodia. These results as described above are evidence for the remarkable effectiveness of social marketing in attracting students into TVET.

However, some detrimental factors to the effectiveness of TVET social marketing persist. The factors include a limited satisfaction of TVET institutions and technical teachers with the current situation of TVET. This low satisfaction is grounded in five aspects negatively impacting TVET performance, including: (1) infrastructure and facilities of TVET institutions; (2) capacity of technical teachers; (3) TVET programs quality; (4) ability and competence of graduating students compared to labor market demands; and (5) limited communication and collaboration with key stakeholders on the demand side and investors.

These objective factors are reinforcing a generally negative perception of TVET in the community, which remains to be a major challenge for the TVET sector in Cambodia, indicating that (1) efforts addressing the main concerns about TVET quality need to be continued, an (2) that continuous efforts and innovative approaches are required to raise public awareness of TVET’s benefits and to address negative stereotypes.

However, public budget shortage for TVET social marketing remains to be a main barrier to unlocking the potential of this sector for increased promotional activities covering a wider range of target groups and stakeholders.

The assessment of students’ behaviors towards different promotional channels showed that many students “rarely or never use the promotional tools” like radio, television and newspaper. However, they always use social media and the Internet (Figure 1).

Figure 1:

Exposure/use of different promotional channels by students.

Table 2 shows that 50.1 % of all high school students who participated in this study have heard or seen the promotional materials or programs about TVET, while 45 % have never seen them. More than half of the students who attended TVET seminars were grade 12 students, followed by grade 11 students.

This indicates that only about half of the students are aware of TVET promotions, suggesting that the current outreach efforts may not have fully reached the target audience. Among the different sources of promotional information, workshops were the most common, attended by 28.6 % of students, followed by Facebook (21.9 %), posters (16.9 %), and television (9.6 %). A smaller proportion, 6.1 %, received information from the DLMI website, while only 5.6 % reported attending job fairs. While some students are aware of TVET initiatives, there is still a need for broader and more engaging promotional strategies, particularly through digital channels and interactive events that appeal to younger students.

Figure 2 illustrates student participation in DLMI-organized TVET seminars across secondary schools. The results show that 80 students (10.1 %) have never attended a TVET seminar, while 136 students (17.2 %) participated at least once. Among those who attended, the highest participation was from students who joined once (4.4 %), followed by more than three times (1.1 %), two times (0.9 %), and three times (0.6 %). These findings suggest that while DLMI’s outreach efforts have successfully encouraged initial participation, sustained engagement and repeat attendance remain limited, indicating the need for stronger follow-up and reinforcement strategies to enhance student awareness and interest in TVET.

Figure 2:

Number of participants in TVET seminars at school.

Table 3 shows the average number of respondents about their understanding of TVET from the seminars, but those respondents answered that they just got little information about skills and job requirements from the seminars. Remarkably, the respondents agreed that seminars are really important to learn and prepare their future career plans. Those who participated in the previous seminars, in addition, said that seminars are so important for them, but their attractiveness is rather low and also difficult to understand. In summary, the effectiveness of seminars for preparing students for their future career is low, and it seems unable to provide much relevant information about skill requirements and the labor market.

7 % of high school students responded that they attended job fairs organized by DLMI. 18 % of them have attended job fairs at least 3 times. About 5 % have attended the job fairs only once. Table 4 presents the average of respondents who have attended the job fairs and they are strongly interested and learned a lot from the job fairs. Though the number of participants in job fairs is rather small (most of them are students in Phnom Penh), they understand well the skill needs and current market demands, as well as career and skill choices in the future. In summary, job fairs are effective to guide students for studying skills, but less effective for future career preparation. Though the job fairs are likely to be at a small scale, not covering all provinces yet.

Approximately 15 % of high school students in this study responded that they had seen TVET promotion of DLMI on television programs. As Table 5 shows, the average proportion of respondents who learned about TVET through television is higher than for any other communication channel. They reported being extremely interested and demonstrated a good understanding of the importance of television promotion.

In summary, television promotion is also an effective way not only to guide students to prepare for their future careers and learn about the skills needed in the future, but also to achieve nationwide coverage that includes all provinces and the capital city.

22 % of high school students said they had seen the posters or leaflets about TVET distributed by DLMI and TVET institutions. Table 6 presents that on average the respondents have learned a lot about the importance of TVET through posters and/or leaflets. They also mentioned that posters/leaflets are the most effective way to learn about TVET. In short, DLMI and TVET institutions have widely distributed posters and leaflets, which are effective in raising students’ awareness to prepare for their career and education decisions.

Table 7 presents that a vast majority of respondents stated that they learned about TVET through social media, which was interesting and important. Currently, there are many students using social media and they received information about TVET through social media related to current labor market needs, career choices and future career options for them.

Approximately 74 % of 694 respondents reported attending at least one workshop, with the majority (414 students) participating once. Smaller groups attended two (161 students), three (66 students), or more than three times (54 students), while 232 students had never participated. This suggests strong initial outreach by DLMI but relatively limited repeat participation, indicating opportunities to strengthen follow-up engagement activities (Figure 3).

Figure 3:

Secondary students’ participation in TVET workshops.

Table 8 shows that, on average, respondents said they occasionally learned about TVET and tried to learn about skills, labor market needs, and career options through TVET workshops, but they received limited information about future careers. Remarkably, the respondents agreed that workshops helped them to learn more about their future education and they are very interested to participate in the workshops. They also mentioned that workshops are important and effective for them (easy to get information), but they don’t seem so attractive for students yet.

In short, the promotional activities through workshops are effective in providing guidance for students, but their effectiveness remains limited in preparing students for future careers and in providing enough information about skills needs and labor market demands.

4.2 TVET Students

Table 9 shows that more than 85 % of the respondents answered correctly what TVET is and what the concept of skills represents. Almost 71 % stated that they knew the place and location of TVET institutions, while 91 % knew both scholarships and school tuition fees. It explicitly means they understand well the pricing strategy and promotional strategy of the TVET sector. Nearly 39.50 % of student respondents did not understand the level of TVET education, while 28.80 % answered correctly.

Around 91 % of respondents believed that they should study skills which are suitable to their interest and talents. However, most of them do not agree that they should study the same things as their friends do after graduating from high school. At the same time, 80 % of them answered that they already had their future plan concerning both skills and career. Surprisingly, 18 % stated that their parents should have planned for them, while 20 % said if they are good at math, they should study social science rather than real science or technical skills (Table 10).

Most students (79.1 %) understood that labor market information includes market needs, working conditions, and salary. However, 13.8 % believed they could get a good job without such knowledge, and 44.2 % viewed scientific expertise as the country’s key need. While 47.3 % thought Cambodia’s development would focus on industry and energy, 25.7 % were unsure. Although students grasp the concept of labor market information, many still lack the awareness of actual labor market demands and national priorities (Table 11).

One of the main research questions is to investigate the significant influential factors which relate to the interest and perception of TVET by targeted respondents. A Likert-Scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) was used to rank the respondents’ answers.

The majority of respondents did not agree with the statement that “TVET jobs are not for women” and “TVET jobs are tiring and dirty”. However, they are likely to disagree with the ideas that: (1) College degrees are better than TVET certification; (2) TVET jobs are for dropouts and poor people (Table 12). All of this means that most of the students are very positive about the TVET sector.

Most of the respondents among the TVET students themselves have attached great importance to TVET. Also, the question regarding TVET’s contribution to and impact on national development received a high rating from respondents (Table 13). It can be said that students who are currently studying TVET have a better understanding or knowledge of the importance of TVET, labor and employment market information, and human resources development as well as the country’s development (Tables 14 and 15).

An independent t-test explains some impacts of social marketing strategy in terms of promoting and attracting students to learn and understand the importance of the TVET sector. As a result, Statistical Significant Difference, and mean values are observed among 1,342 students with the t-Value = 74.96, p = 0.00 (<0.05). While 1033 TVET students have well understood the importance of TVET with the t-Value of 166.61, p = 0.00 (<0.05).

4.3 General Findings on Perception, Impact and Effectiveness

Questions around the perception of TVET showed that many respondents placed a high value on the TVET sector and that a tendency towards improved perception can be observed (Table 16).

Table 17 shows that 71 % of respondents expressed their perception about the TVET sector as more positive than the previous years, while 29 % remained the same. However, no student said their perception on TVET was more negative than the previous years.

Table 18 indicates the effectiveness of social marketing in the TVET sector through exhibitions or job fairs, TV, posters, and social media to raise awareness about TVET and its roles among students. Therefore, the results show that TVET social marketing has dramatically raised the awareness and understanding of students in Cambodia. However, their understanding and knowledge is still low.

This means DLMI, TVET institutions and relevant stakeholders should continue to raise public awareness through developing more interesting topics to attract attention from students.

To get a more precise understanding of the impact, an independent test was conducted. Table 19 provides an analysis of an independent t-test to investigate influential actors on social marketing strategy in order to define the most cost-effective way forwards. The result shows that there is a Statistically Significant Difference (SSD) in terms of the mean value between perception (t-value = 67.96) and level of understanding (t-value = 119.64).

An assessment on the effectiveness of promotion and social marketing by DLMI among secondary school students and their behaviors on the main promotional channels is based on Likert-Scale by which five levels are given: 1 (Never), 2 (Seldom), 3 (Sometime), 4 (Often) and 5 (Always). As shown in Figure 4, most students reported that they rarely or never listen to radio, watch television, or read newspapers. In contrast, the majority indicated that they frequently obtain information through social media platforms and the Internet, highlighting the growing dominance of digital communication among youth audiences.

Figure 4:

Preferences of secondary school students in regard to promotion and information channels.

Table 20 illustrates that 77 % of TVET students who participated in this survey have heard or seen TVET promotional materials, while only 20 % of them reported never having been exposed to them.

This result indicates that social marketing strategy about TVET has attracted many students to enroll in TVET. About 36.6 % of respondents participated in workshops organized by DLMI, while others received information through TV (8.6 %), posters (16.3 %), Facebook (24.8 %), and the website (7.9 %). Interestingly, although almost all students reported using Facebook daily, only about a quarter (24.8 %) had received TVET information from DLMI’s Facebook page. This suggests that DLMI’s promotional activities on social media remain limited in reach and effectiveness, despite high student engagement online.