About Passerelles numériques

History

Throughout the world, far too many underprivileged yet capable young people cannot access higher education and therefore remain trapped in poverty. In Cambodia, out of 300.000 young people born every year, 20 000 reach University level and only 2.000 attain qualified professional employment.

With the vision of a world where through access to education and employment, the most underprivileged can use their talent to reach a better future, Passerelles numériques strives to enable the largest number of young people in a precarious situation to access training leading to a qualified job in the Information Technologies sector. Since 2005, with the support of major actors in the IT field, such as Accenture, Microsoft, HP and Econocom, we have developed in Phnom Penh an IT training center matching market needs for underprivileged young Cambodians.

Achievements

Built on five principles; Fair and rigorous selection, Solid technical and practical training, General training in business skills and values, Social and educational development and Guidance to employment, this project has reached large successes;

•     261 students (out of 280) completed a 2-year IT technician training, and 100% of graduates have found a qualified job with 3-5 times the national average salary, enabling them to support a whole family and filling 20 – 30% of the IT technicians positions needed in the country each year.
•     175 students (out  of 175) completed the 6-month “Data management operator” training and were  hired in the work-study program of the social business Digital Divide Data.

Based on this flexible and reproducible social integration model developed in Cambodia, similar projects have been launched in Cebu (Philippines) in 2009 and in Da Nang (Vietnam) in 2010. 350 students are currently being trained by Passereles numériques in these three countries. These projects help fill the digital gap, empowering large numbers of new IT users and fostering a more balanced development inclusive of remote areas.

Give a man a fish, and you have fed him once. Teach him how to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.

This proverbial saying which suggests that the ability to work is of greater benefit than a one-off handout, is a well known way to say in short the goal of charity organizations aiming for sustainable development. Less obvious is the fact that this saying has to apply also for the organization itself...

The first time I came in contact with the French charity organization 'Passereles numériques’ was in 2007. I was working then for the ECS group, one of the sponsors of the organization by donations and by providing its employees the possibility to go for missions  in the field, more precisely in Cambodia.

Passerelles numériques enables the most underprivileged to access employment in a promising  sector and to break with their families the circle of poverty. The mission is to enable the largest number of youths, in a precarious situation, access to training and skilled employment in the Information Technology sector. The ambition is to help at least 90% of the students directly enrolled in the programs to find a qualified job and ultimately end the cycle of poverty for themselves as well as their families.

I have seen colleagues and team members going on missions for the organization and their feedback has always been fascinating to me. The idea of doing it myself often came to me but both professional and personal involvement, especially with young kids,  have always kept me away from dedicating time and focus to those missions.

When the Econocom group took over the ECS group in 2010, I was pleasantly surprised to hear during a managers meeting that Econocom sponsored ‘Passerelles numériques’ as well. Being in touch again with this organization, I have then been triggered by their new arising challenge : Learn how to fish !

Sponsors are very kin in helping charity organizations to kick off a project by providing funds. But sponsors are also more and more expecting those projects to be locally self-sufficient, to reach autonomy in raising their own funds, not depending 100 % from donations on the long run. This is the challenge the organization is facing now, learn how to fish, find a sustainable way of being self-sufficient by raising funds locally !

It is at that moment that the decision became obvious to me, after 5 years of maturation, that my involvement in this charity organization should be more than supporting colleagues. I foresee added value in providing support to this business model switch, and that time to go on the field for a mission had arrived.

A steering committee has been set up within the Econocom group to assist the organization in this change, and as a part of this project, I will be leaving for Cambodia for two weeks to volunteer with the main objective to bring value in the fund raising business model of Passerelles numériques. During these two weeks I will coach local managers on their commercial skills and strategy and will also hopefully help the sales team to increase efficiency in their local fund raising activity.

My responsibility and involvement is not going to stop after these two weeks. I will continue to support this unique and challenging project for much longer. I would like to share my experiences with you, via this blog and the use of Social Media (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter).

And of course, feel free to follow the developments, provide support, inspiration, feedback, guidance, and why not use them as an inspiration for yourself.