Opportunities For School Leavers

[Godders]

I am stepfather to four Thai children, two of whom are due to leave school over the next couple of years. I have been trying to find out what is available in terms of affordable further education, but this is proving very difficult. My Thai partner talks vaguely of sending them to college or university, but she has no idea what is available in our area(Cha Am/Hua Hin) and she cannot suggest where we can find the necessary information.

I have approached the local overnment school the children attend, and they are just as woolly as my partner. Their attitude seems to be that what happens once the kids leave their care is nothing to do with them. I am

Perhaps I should add that oneof the children has expressed an interest in becoming either an electrician, though the other has yet to come up with a preference. Academically, they are about average. I am teaching them English in the hope that, whatever transpires, they will have a skill to fall back on which should guarantee them some gainful emplopyment - particularly in a tourist area such as ours. But obviously I would prefer to give them the opportunity to attain academic qualifications which would further their chosen careers, once they have determined what they would like these to be.

I don't have a great deal of money, so my options are fairly limited. A falang friend has told me that it is possible for school leavers to help fund their own further education by taking a part time job and using the proceeds to pay for a degree course at a state-funded university or college. I gather there are government funded and private technical and further education colleges in this area which provide reasonably inexpensive courses, but where can one go to source the necessary information on what exactly is available and the cost?