Chantiers-Écoles de Formation Professionelle (CEFP) is a Cambodian public establishment founded in 1992 under the common initiative of the Ministry of Education and the French League of Teaching and Permanent Education to teach stone and woodcarving, lacquerware, furniture construction and silkweaving. The activities of Chantiers-Écoles focus on vocational teaching which allows young, least-favoured Cambodians to acquire professional skills so that they can achieve social and economic recognition in Cambodia. Most of the apprentices are from poor rural families and have had no primary education. Many are physically handicapped or demobilised and the majority are unemployed when joining Chantier-Écoles. The main objective is to train skilled and qualified workers and managers and to develop new trades. At the same time, Chantier-Écoles also supports the revival of Cambodia’s rich cultural identity through the development of skills in traditional techniques such as silk weaving and stone and wood sculpture. Chantier-Écoles has set up the National Silk Centre (CNS) in Puok near Siem Reap to support its training programme and over the last few years it has also introduced energy skills (electricity and water in a rural environment), cabinetwork (making small pieces of furniture) and polychromy to its training programmes. Initially funded by national Cambodian institutions, the French Foreign Ministry and the European Union, Chantiers-Écoles is now financed by its economic entity Artisans d'Angkor, a limited company with minor public participation which offers social, economic and professional integration to those trained at Chantier-Écoles through the establishment of village workshops (15 workshops are currently operating in 13 villages in Siem Reap Province, creating over 700 jobs for both artisans and non-craftspersons) and the marketing and sales of work produced at these workshops in its various sales outlets.