Blurred identities: the hybridisation of post-secondary education and training in Cambodia

ABSTRACT This study intends to identify existing permeability pathways between post-secondary education and training in Cambodia and to highlight hindrances that hamper the smooth permeability between the two systems. Adopting a hybrid process, the study combines both inductive and deductive thematic analysis approaches in coding transcribed interviews at 15 sampled training institutions and universities. The study finds that the most common route to higher education and training is through the higher qualification programmes under the same track. Although a transfer mechanism between education and training is in place thanks to the establishment of the national qualifications framework and credit transfer system, it is still a much complicated and less utilised pathway. Challenges that thwart the mobility of students include the lack of inter-ministerial collaboration and coordination, issues related to the assessment of students’ prior qualifications, and differences in quality assurance mechanisms between the two tracks. Be it more or less, these barriers have contributed to the academisation of technical training and the vocationalisation of higher education in the country.