Region-Wide Effort To Push Work Skills: Vocational Education

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VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Region-wide effort to push work skills

WANNAPA KHAOPA

THE NATION

Picture shows (from left), Gwang-Chol Chang, Chief of Education Policy and Reform Unit, UNESCO Bangkok, Prof Feng Xiao, Director, Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Tongji University, China, Thomas Schroder, Project Director, Regional Co-ope

Germany backs project to copy its acclaimed system

BANGKOK: -- Our vocational students lack practical skills. It's not just Thailand - the Asean region lacks internships that help improve their working skills and prepare them for the world of work."

That's the opinion of Assoc Prof Numyoot Songthanapitak, president of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT).

Apart from internships, vocational teachers equipped with practical skills are another key to producing a skilled workforce for Asean's changing labour markets, a regional conference was told last week.

Numyoot said he wanted the region to fully adopt German vocational education development practices. Vocational institutions there produce workers and technical personnel through internships supported by entrepreneurs. This way, they can produce personnel with a good working attitude.

A group of people with expertise in this field has joined a project supported by Germany, a country famous for its vocational education system.

The Regional Cooperation Platform on Vocational Teacher's Training and Education in Asia (RCP) is a collaboration between vocational teaching institutions in Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China.

Its aim is to enhance practical competence in vocational teacher education with support from the German International Cooperation (GIZ). The current RCP project runs from December 2010 to December 2013. Germany has provided a budget of 3 million euros (Bt116 million) for it.

It focuses on enhancing productivity and quality of vocational teachers by supporting activities that provide technical knowledge. Among these activities are generating academic and institutional know-how in a comfortable environment so that vocational and technical education can be applied to innovative technologies. Also, the RCP secretariat helps promote and create opportunities for experts from the industrial sector to participate in the project.

RCP project director Thomas Schroder said: "Our partners understand that we need to focus on how to enhance practical vocational skills of vocational teachers. If you follow a more holistic idea of complete vocational teachers, you need to strengthen [their] hands-on practical vocational skills."

He added that in Germany, headmasters at many vocational schools select people who want to be vocational teachers based on apprenticeships. They seek teachers with strong practical skills.

Around 70 researchers from eight universities in the six countries have joined the RCP. They have conducted research based on real vocational education problems found in their countries to find solutions for them. They have convinced all stakeholders, including policy-makers, to address the problems by implementing their research recommendations. This research helps them search for up-to-date knowledge and pass it to vocational teachers, Schroder said.

To improve the quality of vocational teachers, Assoc Prof Cao Van Sam, deputy general director of Vietnam's General Department of Vocational Training, said his country had focused on recruiting vocational teachers with practical skills in the occupations they teach. They are required to have studied vocational pedagogy.

Laos has tried to screen teachers for excellence at all educational levels. It plans to increase teacher salaries by a factor of between two and three from October.

In response to demand from growing industries in these countries, many governments are trying to increase the number of vocational and technical students, including those here and in Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia.

However, most Asean countries face the problem of vocational education being undervalued compared to general education, said Gwang-Chol Chang, chief of the Education Policy and Reform Unit at Unesco Bangkok.

Thailand has a 39:61 ratio of vocational to general higher-education students, while in Singapore it is 65:35 per cent, Laos 30:70 and Vietnam 45:55.

So, to push vocational education improvement, Schroder invited governments of member countries to join forces with the RCP and provide support, including funds to empower vocational teachers.

-- The Nation 2012-08-14

[Skywalker69]

ASEAN is closing in.

[asiawatcher]

They could start by teaching English in schools... but that would open the world to Thai's.

[jerrysteve]

The Vocational Education is a great idea, and coupled with the ability to speak English, Read and Write it, would enable them

seek opportunities outside Thailand for the Vocation choose, carpenter, plumber, electrican, airconditioning mechanic, computer repair,

etc.

The problem with

English being taught here is that it is completely taught backwards. Although being able to read and write English is important, the

ability to speak English should take center stage being a natural logical pregession of evolution.

All of us, no matter where we come from, no matter what the native language is, we all learn to speak inside the HOME!

Once we reach a certain age, the transfer from speaking to learning the alphabet, to reading takes place, and then writing.

I have read that roughly 75% of all communication no matter the culture, no matter the language is verbal. 15% makes up the written

part; magazines, texts, manuscripts. documents, etc etc.

[gdk]

Europ official language is ENGLISH, here in Thailand is only Thai or Chinees

[gdk]

They could start by teaching English in schools... but that would open the world to Thai's.

if they have good teatchers and that's a problem here

[lubbkis]

Although being able to read and write English is important, the

ability to speak English should take center stage being a natural logical pregession of evolution.

See how far the pregress of this writer's ovolution goes.

Using a foreign language is not a vocational skill, unless one thinks the only vocations are in a bar or abroad.

Edited August 14, 2012 by lubbkis

[hanuman2543]

Europ official language is ENGLISH, here in Thailand is only Thai or Chinees

Since when? I am a German and in Germany the official language is German AFAIK and in Thailand it is Thai.

Edited August 14, 2012 by hanuman2543

[vijer]

Well the first problem to solve is the stupid concept the Thai education system has "no student is allowed to fail". If you can't fail there is no incentive to learn anything. Occasionally a student will point to another student and say "teacher he copy", to which I respond "it's OK we need garbagemen too".

Where do you think all the taxi drivers and crappy construction workers come from? Exactly, all the students who didn't fail but learned nothing at the same time. These are the same people they expect to LEARN vocational skills? Not likely to ever happen.

[ramrod711]

Well the first problem to solve is the stupid concept the Thai education system has "no student is allowed to fail". If you can't fail there is no incentive to learn anything. Occasionally a student will point to another student and say "teacher he copy", to which I respond "it's OK we need garbagemen too".

Where do you think all the taxi drivers and crappy construction workers come from? Exactly, all the students who didn't fail but learned nothing at the same time. These are the same people they expect to LEARN vocational skills? Not likely to ever happen.

Now that Thida and Thaksins sister have been appointed, I'm sure the Thai education system will run like a machine 55555

[travelmann]

They could start by teaching English in schools... but that would open the world to Thai's.

Dont be stupid theyve just stopped that................who needs English when half the world speaks Thai

[Tanaka]

To have apprentices you first must have masters in a trade and in Thailand there are none. You cannot compare the system in Germany to that in Thailand, there are just no similarities. At all. The updating of the Thai education system (or lack of it) should have started 20 years ago. Now reality is closing in on the Thais and they still think they are the world. The wake up call in three years will be harsh, I fear.