Ul Khley
Ul Khley joined Digital Divide Data's Battambang office in 2009, rising from data operator to team leader. He finished his bachelor's degree in management in 2014. Soft skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and communication, he says, gave him confidence to face challenges, solve problems, and know what direction to take. After leaving DDD, he worked at Mega Asset Management from 2014 to 2016, starting as an assistant to management and promoted to human resources officer. He's now Senior Regional Coordinator in charge of human resource development at Swisscontact Cambodia.
Born into a poor family of 10 in a remote area of Oddar Meanchey province, where his parents are farmers, he's now pursuing a PhD at National University of Battambang, exploring factors that drive student motivation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training. His research challenges the misperception that TVET jobs are only for the low-skilled, emphasizing that professions like automotive technicians, electricians, draftsmen, and graphic designers represent the backbone of a skilled workforce that Cambodia needs as it advances toward industrialization. "Because of the English and computer skills I gained at DDD, I could work with big companies and international organizations," he says. With his salary and resources, he can support himself, his family, and his parents, and through his projects, he helps vulnerable youths with limited access get opportunities, skills, and jobs. His advice for DDD: incorporate career consultation for young people, guiding them on how different university majors lead to specific job opportunities and which fields will be in demand in the future, with a handbook of job profiles so students can prepare without regretting their choices.
