Experts Urge Thai Govt To Focus On Education Of Workforce

[webfact]

Education must focus on workforce: experts

By WATCHIRANONT THONGTEP

THE NATION

The government has been urged to promote linkages between the education and private sectors to enable development of human capital before the creation of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.

"The labour market lacks skilled workers, especially from vocational schools, while the economy has been gradually expanding," said Yongyuth Chalamwong, director of the labour development research department of the Thailand Devel-opment Re-search Institute.

One of the problems was that about 130,000 students drop out of high school, of whom 20,000 are from vocational colleges, he said during the "Re-invent Thailand" roundtable organised by Krungthep Tura-kij newspaper in cooperation with IBM Solution De-livery, the Stock Exchange of Thailand and Thai Listed Companies Association.

The government should add this urgent issue to the national human resource development plan. There should be quality guarantees at all education levels from national to Asean qualification frameworks. Vocational teachers should be trained to produce skilled workers for industry.

To prepare the workforce for the Asean common market, schools and colleges should teach major foreign languages besides English, he added.

Phanit Laosirirat, executive director of the Thailand Produc-tivity Institute, said the government should set an example for good governance while financially assisting educational institutions to create courses with the private sector in order to fill that gap.

The service sector, including tourism, financial, retail and medical services, was also important for the country, as half of its employees were skilled workers, he added.

Pensri Suteerasarn, president of the Thai Listed Companies Association, and Bunchai Pun-turaumporn, chief executive officer of Sabina, said they want to see the integration of highly experienced personnel and educational institutions.

For example, executives should be allowed to share their experiences and soft skills with vocational students as a shortcut to increasing labour productivity.

Suras Lertpoompunya, general manager of IBM Solution Delivery, said the use of free-form information and communications technology was crucial for encouraging |all levels of employees to share |their experiences as well as to reduce operating costs amid soaring production and labour factor costs.

Veerathai Santiprabhop, executive vice president and chief strate

gic officer, said he was somewhat concerned about the government's populist policies that could bring the employment situation down.

For example, Veerathai said, to raise the minimum daily wage to Bt300 and hike the monthly salary to B15,000 for university graduates was just a populist policy that would be good for a short period of time but not targeted at improving labour productivity.

This would also distort the market mechanism and cause problems for the economy in the long term.

-- The Nation 2011-09-16

[Soutpeel]

"For example, Veerathai said, to raise the minimum daily wage to Bt300 and hike the monthly salary to B15,000 for university graduates was just a populist policy that would be good for a short period of time but not targeted at improving labour productivity.

This would also distort the market mechanism and cause problems for the economy in the long term"

....at least there are people about in Thailand who do think long term

[Orgathai]

I once had a girlfriend working for the ministry of Finance, and they were allowed to sleep on the job....

probably better fire 70% of them and redistribute their salaries between the more motivated people??

[apalink_thailand]

This has to be the number one priority in this country. There is a serious shortage of properly educated and qualified workers, especially those that head for the manufacturing industries into the supervisory positions. Its so hard to find people that can reliably process information in their heads and find solutions to situations/problems without having to be told every little thing. Planning/forward thinking is also a major difficulty for Thai mid-level workers. I do hope that this initiative will be taken seriously.

[renaissanc]

Governments want the people to be stupid because then they can be manipulated and bought. Education is so low on their list of priorities that it has dropped underground. Sad!

[thequietman]

To prepare the workforce for the Asean common market, schools and colleges should teach major foreign languages besides English, he added.

thai schools currently teach english and chinese. what other major foreign languages are there to add to this ? bearing in mind it is for the asian market.

[tlansford]

Question for those following TVF...

Is this new news from TDRI, or did they also propose this to the previous administration?

[blacksuitdandruff]

the "best" educations are the ones that let you believe you are "smart" when in fact you're quite ignorant.

in my limited observations it seems the thai education system has proliferated this belief pretty well but pales in comparison to the degree of the american system.

[Jawnie]

Those who rule and lead Thailand do not want an educated workforce. An educated work force or population would quickly see how poorly they are served by their current leaders and form of government. Tipping the scale away from broader education reform are those who do manage to get an education. They then join the system to get rich, famous, or powerful. All this relies on an uneducated, pliant, or otherwise controlled populace. Thailand has much, much further to go to considered a legitimate player internationally. It's government and leaders are too backward and insular in their thinking to be international. Again, as soon as one makes comparison of international norms, Thailand is further behind than generally thought.

Edited September 16, 2011 by Jawnie

[Cayenne]

Those who rule and lead Thailand do not want an educated workforce. An educated work force or population would quickly see how poorly they are served by their current leaders and form of government. Tipping the scale away from broader education reform are those who do manage to get an education. They then join the system to get rich, famous, or powerful. All this relies on an uneducated, pliant, or otherwise controlled populace. Thailand has much, much further to go to considered a legitimate player internationally. It's government and leaders are too backward and insular in their thinking to be international. Again, as soon as one makes comparison of international norms, Thailand is further behind than generally thought.

This even more so under this government. What incentive would Yingluck/Thaksin have to have a highly educated workforce who could see through all of their schemes and possibly be involved in the next PAD/Multicolor protest and vote against them in the next election? Better to keep people dumb and ignorant so they could rely on government handouts and hand out gimmicks like tablets which does nothing to improve the overall infrastructure for education. Or better yet, make them "economic slaves" by handing out credit cards,etc. to make them even more in debt

[caribbeanman]

To prepare the workforce for the Asean common market, schools and colleges should teach major foreign languages besides English, he added.

thai schools currently teach english and chinese. what other major foreign languages are there to add to this ? bearing in mind it is for the asian market.

Maybe they were thinking about teaching Khmer and malay (i am just kidding)

[Chris Lawrence]

Education gives the opportunity to become political. Too easy to let people only have a 6 grade education and then send them to work. This Govt has some good social reform ideas, that if successful will benefit many people. But there are some that don't want this to happen!

[anterian]

Before you can give a person an education you first have to show that person the desirability and advantages of education. As in most learning situations, " no pain, no gain", is always true.

[Balls]

Trade Schools are very important for the economy.

As as Electrical Engineer for over twenty five years, I could never stop going to school as technology changes faster than the college courses I could take. In the beginning, I graduated from a two year trade school as an electrical maintenance man and then attended over seven different colleges. Believe me - it was the trade school that made all the difference. The only other courses that were of any benefit were night classes being taught by Professionals already working in different fields such as welding and hydraulics.

An age old adage: Those who can do the work - do. Those who can't do the work - teach it. Colleges are for dating it seems.

I have been so disappointed every time I tried to have any repairs done in homes, cars and motorcycles. Proper work ethics are lacking as well and no one cleans up after themselves. In the USA, if a painter drips a single drop of paint on a floor - that painter is liable!

Every time I get my motorbike out of the repair shop, it's got different nuts and bolts on it, and they don't even match from one side to the other. Typically, during the repair, they will break at least two unrelated parts and then I get it back covered with grease!

I wish luck to anyone who has been taught anything by their "Uncle Oh". Thailand really does need skilled workers and more educated tradesmen and decent Trade Schools are the only way !

[Jawnie]

Sir, your partisan sniping in meaningless and, worse, harmful to a discussion about getting Thai people educated. This has very little to do with the new Yingluck administration, per se.

I'm talking about all the Thais, young and adults, who are NOW currently uneducated. I continually meet adults who can't read, write, never used the internet or have email. These situation did NOT occur during the first two months of the new adminstration.

Lack of education and proper education has been a glaring problem in Thailand for a very long time. It is because of the political system and those controlling it (not Yingluck, not Taksin, or even Abhisit)...but those other institutions who strangle broad-based education, innovation, and change in Thailand.

Those who rule and lead Thailand do not want an educated workforce. An educated work force or population would quickly see how poorly they are served by their current leaders and form of government. Tipping the scale away from broader education reform are those who do manage to get an education. They then join the system to get rich, famous, or powerful. All this relies on an uneducated, pliant, or otherwise controlled populace. Thailand has much, much further to go to considered a legitimate player internationally. It's government and leaders are too backward and insular in their thinking to be international. Again, as soon as one makes comparison of international norms, Thailand is further behind than generally thought.

This even more so under this government. What incentive would Yingluck/Thaksin have to have a highly educated workforce who could see through all of their schemes and possibly be involved in the next PAD/Multicolor protest and vote against them in the next election? Better to keep people dumb and ignorant so they could rely on government handouts and hand out gimmicks like tablets which does nothing to improve the overall infrastructure for education. Or better yet, make them "economic slaves" by handing out credit cards,etc. to make them even more in debt

[whybother]

Education gives the opportunity to become political. Too easy to let people only have a 6 grade education and then send them to work. This Govt has some good social reform ideas, that if successful will benefit many people. But there are some that don't want this to happen!

Which social reform ideas are those?