February and April were important months for PN in Cambodia and the Philippines. Families, friends, partners, students, alumni and PN staff gathered to celebrate the graduation of 169 students!
Passerelles numériques Cambodia
On February 6th, the 9th graduation ceremony of Passerelles numériques (PN) Cambodia took place in our campus in Phnom Penh. Students of Class 2015 qualified as IT technicians, and received a certificate that is recognized by the Government of Cambodia.
Even though all students had started their professional career several months ago, this event represented for them and their families a fresh start towards a better future.
Current students, PN staff and some partners from other NGOs and the private sector gathered around the graduates to celebrate their achievements. Francois Phulpin, Trustee at PN France, and Aude de Rotalier and Ferdinand de Baker, Trustees at PN in Singapore also joined the ceremony, which has seen 92 students obtaining either their System Network Administration (SNA) certificate or Web Programming (WEP) certificate.
The audience was deeply moved when the father of a student took the floor, his freshly graduated daughter close to him, to express his joy and gratitude to Passerelles numériques and those who support the program.
In homage to their friends, the younger students performed a traditional Cambodian dance and a song.
Finally the students were awarded their diploma from the teachers who accompanied them in this 2-year journey. One after the other, they stepped on stage, and both professors and students showed how happy and proud they were. Students and graduates closed this beautiful day with a party.
Passerelles numériques Philippines
A few weeks later, PN Philippines celebrated its 5th Graduation Ceremony.
77 youths from around the Visayas proudly concluded 3 years of intense study, effort, and commitment that contributed to give them life skills, good work methods, IT, business and general knowledge, in order to prepare them to work as software developers, system and network administrators, software testers and Web developers.
As they just received their diplomas, 85% of the class 2016 already found a job in Cebu City and over 50% of them (i.e. 39 out of 77) were absorbed by their On-The-Job Training (OJT) companies. So far, the average salary of the new PN graduates is 15,000 PhP (325 USD), up from 13,500 compared to last year! Overall, 80% of the new graduates were independent enough to find their employment by themselves.
This academic year, the number one employer of PN Philippines graduates is NCR with 15 recruitments, followed by Icomm and House of IT with 5 recruitments each, and 3rd, also ex aequo, are Accenture and SmartStart with 3 recruitments.
Mr. Douglas Yballe, Managing Director, Solution Architecture/Pre-Sales Lead at Accenture Philippines and Mr. Roland Flouquet-Vilboux, PN board member (Secretary) and Senior Director Strategy and Partnerships, EMEA at CA Technologies.
To top it off, the ceremony ended with a surprise dance prepared by our new graduates!
Passerelles numériques Philippines would like to thank I Scale and Smart for the sponsoring of this graduation and CA technologies for the gifts given to the students during the ceremony.
Mr. Roland Flouquet-Vilboux rewarding a graduate.
Congratulations to PNP 2016!