I am Sopheng Tep, a deputy director at the department of cultural training, addressing training and development, in the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MCFA), and a part-time lecturer from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I graduated with a Master of Education in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (M.Ed.-TESOL) in 2014. Currently, I am pursuing an MBA in General Management at UniAthena.

I pursued this programme at UniAthena to enhance my knowledge and skills and to contribute to social development for both public and private organisations in Cambodia and other countries, if possible. Furthermore, I believe that good management really helps organisations succeed. I strongly believe that the critical and effective learning at UniAthena will help me acquire extensive knowledge, theories, and skills, as well as the experiences needed to educate colleagues, students, and entire communities and societies.

When I finish this MBA in General Management, my plan is to impart the knowledge, theories, skills, and experiences I have acquired from this programme to my colleagues and students. In the next step, I would like to broaden my knowledge of leadership and education since they are very critical skills in helping me achieve my goal.

My plan is ordinary because I need to improve my organisation to be better than ever before, and I can have a chance to promote myself to grow up. Besides, I need to share the knowledge and experience I have with my family, colleagues, and students. Consequently, I hope that I can contribute, along with the ministry of education, youth, and sports and the government of Cambodia, to developing Cambodian human capital.

My current position is the consequence of my previous job, experience, and academic journey. Without my bachelor's and master's degree education background, I would not be who I am today. Besides, the ASEAN integration and economic globalization pushed me to determine another challenging goal in pursuing an MBA in general management with UniAthena.

The time that I called "the challenging time" was when I considered taking this fast-track MBA in General Management programme with UniAthena. I have found that this MBA with UniAthena is really an essential programme in shaping my experience towards my future goals. I will try my best to pursue this MBA in General Management successfully and effectively.

Time flew by, and I met many people working in the fields of leadership and education. I believe that knowledge, skills, and attitude are the key characteristics for a person to succeed in any career path or field. In my experience, I have seen that a highly skilled person with a bad attitude cannot have a successful life at all, while a person with all three characteristics can accomplish the goal.

When I was a senior in high school, I started to teach English to children in my village to build up my own experience in teaching. At that time, I understood that teaching is not an easy job that everyone can do. Teaching requires leadership and management skills to make sure that students can comprehend the lesson. It was also the time when I realised that leadership is an essentially significant skill that everyone should know if they want to be successful in their careers.

In my opinion, The Five Levels of Leadership by John C. Maxwell is a must-read book for everyone, especially the leaders or managers in any organisation. A businessman or woman, a leader, a manager, a teacher, a coordinator, or a parent, innately possesses leadership skills. As stated in his book, there are five levels of leadership: level 1 (position), level 2 (permission), level 3 (production), level 4 (people development), and level 5 (pinnacle). Hence, this book will help leaders understand and increase their effectiveness to lead successfully.

My dream job is becoming a lecturer at a university since I want to share my experience with future generations in Cambodia. I don’t have any economic resources to aid the government in reducing poverty. Hence, I firmly believe that knowledge, skills, and experiences can help me take part in my country's development.

First of all, I would like to wish all professionals who are just starting out in their careers good luck and success. Besides, I would like to suggest that future generations keep upgrading their knowledge, skills, and experience because education is life-long learning and the vital key to achieving the goals. Education provides people with the access they need to see the world clearly from broad perspectives.