Indigenous teenagers in Cambodia's Ratanakiri learn to install solar panels through UNICEF's Youth Solar program

Indigenous teenagers in northeastern Cambodia are learning to install and maintain solar power systems through a UNICEF-supported program called Youth Solar, or YOSO, UNICEF Cambodia said on 20 October. About 2,600 students in Ratanakiri and Preah Vihear provinces are expected to take part in 2026.

The program combines hands-on solar skills with climate education and is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program. Sixty teachers have also been trained as Climate Fresk facilitators, a workshop format that explains the causes and effects of climate change.

Learning that sunlight can run a home

“Now I know electricity can be generated from sunlight, and we can use it in our daily lives.” — Snet, 15, from the Jarai community in Ratanakiri

For students like Snet, the training is the first time they have built anything electrical. Heang Sokchea, an ICT teacher, said the training changed how students see themselves: “They once thought they had no power to create change.”

Hao, 17, connected the lessons to farming, which many families in the province depend on. Changing weather “makes it difficult for farmers and the Cambodian people as a whole, because we rely heavily on agriculture,” Hao said.

Skills for jobs in a growing field

UNICEF frames the program as preparing young people for green careers, with practical skills in installing and maintaining solar systems alongside climate education in school.

Similar training is reaching young people elsewhere in Cambodia's neighborhood; in Laos, a youth skills program grew to more than 7,000 young people in a year. More stories of learning are collected under education.

No numbers yet on jobs

UNICEF's story does not say how many students have completed the course so far or how many have found work using their solar skills. Those figures will show whether YOSO opens the career doors it aims to.