Impact assessment of personal empowerment training on higher educational students of agriculture in Cambodia

Bc. Dora Vávrová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The main objective of the thesis is to examine the effect of personal empowerment training, called OPERACY: Key to Personal Success and Leadership, on higher education students. The research was conducted on 68 participants from two Cambodian universities, Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) and Chea Sim University of Kamchaymear (CSUK). The study group consisted of 58 students from RUA and 10 students from CSUK. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, developed by Rosenberg (1957), have been selected as a background for questionnaire development with recommendations of OPERACY training founder. The participants of the training have been evaluated three times: pre-test before the training, first post-test immediately after the training and second post-test two months after the training to compare long-term impact of the training. The results obtained from this study have shown that OPERACY training is effective to increase university students empowerment. The influence of the field of study on increased empowerment have been confirmed by this thesis. OPERACY training is also having positive influence on students motivation. The OPERACY training fulfilled expectations of all participants, mainly in improved knowing themselves. Success of OPERACY training was proved by 98.53% of students, who will recommend it for others. The current study has provided further evidence that male students recorded higher scores on SOS to POS person scale than female students.

Keywords

Soft skills, Employability, Empowerment, Agricultural education, Cambodia

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 22. 4. 2016

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Petra Chaloupková, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / International Development and Agricultural Economics