The Learning Express
Learning Express, or LeX, is a two-week social innovation programme started by Singapore Polytechnic and run here with the National University of Management. Students from both countries work in mixed teams, in a Cambodian commune, on problems the people who live there actually have.
The method is Design Thinking. Teams live with local families, learn what the real problem is rather than the assumed one, build something, take it back to the community, and rebuild it on what they are told. In 2025 that meant sugarcane, bananas and how smallholders sell. In 2026 it meant mango products, Khmer krama indigo and the local junior high school.
It runs every March. Thirty places, open to students across NUM and NUM International College.
- Two weeks in Kampong Cham
- 30 places, by written test and interview
- Design Thinking, taught before departure
- Singapore Polytechnic teams alongside ours
- 250+ NUM students across LeX and other SP programmes
Thirty Places
Selection runs from December to January, and the training starts before anyone leaves Phnom Penh.
Apply
Applications open to students across NUM and NUM International College. LeX 2026 opened in December 2025.
Sit the written assessment
Ninety-four applicants sat the LeX 2026 written test, on critical thinking, problem solving and practical reasoning.
Interview
Applicants who pass the screening are shortlisted and invited to interview.
Make the thirty
Only thirty candidates go forward. Finalists are announced in January.
Train in Design Thinking
Five sessions before departure: the empathy study plan, mock interviews, data analysis and need statements, then ideation.
How the Two Weeks Run
