At Anjali, we know being a good leader is key to success at school, work, or in your community. We prioritize developing leadership skills for both the young adults in our Future Leaders program, and as continued training for Anjali’s staff. That’s why, our young adults and staff participate in workshops and training at Anjali and with our partners throughout the year.
Our young adults learn skills that will give them a leg up in higher education and their careers
To prepare our young adults for professional life, we organize workshops, soft skills classes, and service learning through community projects. Public education in Cambodia focuses on topics like English, history, or science. We believe that in addition to these subjects, our students need to develop soft skills that will contribute to their personal growth. Through our Future Leaders program, we reinforce their self-confidence during workshops on topics like public speaking or teamwork, help them find part-time work and suitable careers, and train them to be leaders in their communities.
To support these goals, our students founded a Future Leaders Council. They elected student leaders who will join additional workshops, which will complement the weekly leadership lessons for all young adults.
Our young adults will have supplementary workshops in February with one of our board members, who will share lessons learned from his career as a lawyer. We will continue to search for opportunities for our young adults to participate in workshops and experiences that willstrengthen their soft skills.
Continued learning improves our staff’s talent and capacity
Many of our staff are at the beginning of their careers, or work at Anjali in addition to earning higher degrees. We are committed to their continued development and progress, to both improve their futures and ensure they are excelling in their work with our students.
With the beginning of our new program, our staff is learning how to become coaches for our children. Our coaches are exploring the difference between mentoring and teaching, discussing how to be role models, and learning how to demonstrate confidence and commitment. Their job is not strictly to teach, but to share ideas with our students and act as examples of leaders. We want our coaches to help our students feel strong and confident.
In February, one of our coaches, Poleang, and our social worker, Samen, attended a two day workshop organized by the South East Asia Foundation. They met with others NGOs and private school teachers to learn about conflict resolution.
The workshop gave them tips about how to solve problems and resolve conflict between children or staff members. They also discussed the best ways to improve their leadership skills. This workshop was a new experience for our staff. “I’m really interested in conflict resolution, and I want to learn a lot about it. I’d also like to learn more about leadership,” says Poleang. “I was so excited by this workshop,” added Samen. “I learned many things about myself and others. I think it will help me in my work as a social worker.”
Our staff and young adults also learn from each other
Staff and young adults came together to learn from our Executive Director, Simon, in a workshop about leadership skills. They discussed key qualities and skills, like how to be a role model, share experiences with the people you lead, and be proactive and resourceful. Simon shared her personal experiences as Anjali’s director.
The workshop was an opportunity for our young adults and staff to learn from each other about what works, and improve their leadership skills as a group.
We hope to continue developing our staff and young adults
Training our team is one of our highest priorities. We know that our children won’t succeed if the staff mentoring them isn’t qualified and prepared. We are working to develop in-house training sessions for them and to find more partners for external training. We need more support to continue training our staff, whether to improve their English teaching skills, bring new points of view to the classroom, or help improve their counseling skills.
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