Over the past three months, Team4Tech facilitated an impactful project connecting 11 skilled volunteers from Cadence Design Systems with staff from PEPY Empowering Youth (PEPY). After months of virtual collaboration, skilled volunteers traveled to Siem Reap, Cambodia to implement solutions on site.
A Community-Based NGO Empowering Cambodian Youth
During Cambodia’s infamous Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, over 1.5 million people were either murdered or died from overwork and starvation. Since the regime targeted the most educated citizens, Cambodia still struggles with a lack of trained educators and skilled professionals.
Located in Siem Reap, one of the lowest-ranking provinces in terms of education quality, PEPY Empowering Youth (PEPY) connects Cambodian youth with the network, resources, and tools needed to reach their potential.
PEPY’s one-year Learning Center Program provides context-based training in English, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and soft skills for youth to excel in the current job market. And, the Youth Innovators’ and Incubator Program teaches comprehensive soft skill and IT courses to prepare entrepreneurs to launch social enterprises or build resiliency and sustainability into their current workspaces. Team4Tech partners with PEPY to help increase organizational capacity and bolster training for their teachers and staff.
Seeing the impact of the work PEPY is doing was deeply moving, and having the chance to contribute to such meaningful and important work helped me gain valuable perspective and learn and improve myself both professionally and as a person.”
– Alex Leigh, Volunteer From Cadence Canada, Lead Design Engineer
Global Volunteers Connect and Collaborate to Make an Impact
Since 2022, Team4Tech has facilitated three previous skilled volunteering projects with PEPY, but we were excited to bring volunteers to Siem Reap to work with PEPY staff directly for this recent project.
After eight weeks of virtual collaboration, eleven Cadence Design Systems volunteers from six different countries joined Team4Tech and PEPY staff for two weeks in person in Cambodia. The assembled team collaborated to implement technology solutions that help make PEPY’s day-to-day work more streamlined and efficient.
The volunteer team tackled two streams of work for this project:
Data Dashboard
- The first subteam supported development of a data dashboard to accurately and clearly represent core data across each of PEPY’s four main programs.
- Volunteers and PEPY staff worked together to prototype the dashboard and develop accompanying surveys to gather the data.
- With this newly developed dashboard, PEPY will be able to more efficiently and effectively track student data, take informed action steps, and better communicate their impact.
AI Tools
- The second subteam focused on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools to:
- Help PEPY with administrative processes
- Increase administrative efficiency so the PEPY team can spend more time with their students
- Volunteers researched possible solutions that would be accessible in Cambodia and provided detailed implementation guides.
- Proposed solutions included using AI for lesson planning, grant reporting, attendance tracking, and translation of materials into Khmer.
- These solutions will support PEPY with automating and streamlining everyday work to ultimately save time.
By building organizational capacity and reducing friction in their administrative work, PEPY staff can focus on what matters most: impacting more rural Cambodian youth.
Volunteering with Team4Tech and PEPY was a deeply enriching experience and had a great impact on my personal and professional aspirations. By working closely with the staff and the students, I felt honored and fulfilled to be part of the mission of supporting Cambodian youth in achieving their dreams. Furthermore, I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such talented Cadence colleagues from other countries who have become lifelong connections.”
– Mônica Pereira, Volunteer From Cadence Brazil, Application Engineer
Team4Tech is proud to help PEPY advance their goals around data management and innovative instruction. More broadly, we’re proud to facilitate connections between volunteers and education-focused NGOs like PEPY, improving education that ultimately prepares learners for better jobs.
This is just one example of Team4Tech’s global contributions to education. Our organization continues to accelerate the impact of nonprofit organizations globally.