Desperately in need of over 4,000 tour guides, Govt lowers education criteria to 4th grade

[tonneke breda]

Why do you need an education certificate to be a tour guide anyway?

It could help, with an education you might have some understanding of your own language, and history???

[winstonc]

my wife was tg in phuket,speaks perfect english/russian,was so good all she did was babysit a family/ies when here long hours mega money,biggest comm,2.mbaht madness,took russians the biggest jewellery store in the world(well thats there slogan)on by-pass road phuket...pure commision my jaw hit the floor,that was 10 years ago,there is oodles of wedge to be earnt,if your willing to put in the hours....

[atyclb]

At first glance I thought the story title was "Tour guide education requirement raised to 4th grade"

[Artisi]

Amazing Thailand - lower what criteria, the ability to communicate fluently in a second language. To my way of thinking, the lower education they are talking about means lower standard 2nd language skill - but lots of luck as it's nearly impossible to lower low any lower.

[culicine]

What M4 students aren't fluent in Russian?

He's talking about PRATHOM 4, not M4 So I guess we will see a stream of 9/10 years old tour guides fluent in Russian/Chinese now LOL. How many Thais fluent in another language want to work for the pittance of a tour guide????

[yourauntbob]

Thailand would really do itself a favor by opening up to foreign workers who are better qualified and more capable of doing certain jobs. Their unemployment rate is already less than 1% so it's unreasonable to talk about "stealing jobs" away from Thais.

Who told you the unemployment rate was less than 1%? The Thai government? You'd be better off listening to the Tooth Fairy.

You cant trust official numbers ANYWHERE! But, how many Thai's do you know that cant find a job? If my girlfriends sends out 5 resumes she gets 4 callbacks and 3 jobs. I am not talking about low paying work either, mid range thai jobs 20-30k per month.

[boomerangutang]

Up here in northernmost Thailand, I know hill tribers who want to be tour guides, and some do that type of work 'under the table.' ....but the educational requirement has been restrictive. Ironically, some of those I personally know, speak better English than a U-grad from a prestigious Thai U (perhaps that's no surprise). So, all joking aside, this easing of educational requirements might be a boon for some capable folks. Incidentally, educations opportunities are still lagging for many hill tribe communities.

Plus, in a general sense, education is way over-rated. particularly U degrees. Colleges and U's are primarily set up to make money, and they do a rather good job of it.

[marell]

Clever idea. Not being able to understand the tour guide makes your holiday even more exotic...and amazing.

[dighambara]

All the 4000 would be self taught ??

Have they considered to perhaps lowering the requirements for foreigners ? Ie native speakers ?

The amazing thing would be tourists would actually understand what has been told to them.

I once saw a Thai , Russian speaking guide. Only he knew what he was talking about, Russian group had no clue at all

Docent - A great job for a foreign retiree...

[harrry]

A tour guide who almost certainly does not have a degree and quite likely left school at 15

[Thai at Heart]

Why do the government need to get involved in licencing tour guides?

Let it all go private.......

[ginjag]

A tour guide has just informed me of a NOK AIR plane has skidded off the runway after landing.

[nong38]

Some twerp with a diploma for a guide is not the same as someone with local knowledge. The paperwork is just another scam to get a job and wheel people round tourist traps for bung and its great to know who the tourist industry is interested in, Europe and the US take note its not you, look for somewhere else please

Edited August 6, 2013 by nong38

[stockholm1995]

4000 bilingual guides educated to grade 4.

Are they even able to speak Thai?

They will teach them to speak thai at same time!

[ozyjon]

What the........ niet,, ni how,,kom som ni da,, give money oh i understand that....

[rametindallas]

Thailand would really do itself a favor by opening up to foreign workers who are better qualified and more capable of doing certain jobs. Their unemployment rate is already less than 1% so it's unreasonable to talk about "stealing jobs" away from Thais.

Who told you the unemployment rate was less than 1%? The Thai government? You'd be better off listening to the Tooth Fairy.

You really shouldn't argue when you don't know... Unless you know better than the Bank of Thailand

Thailand Unemployment Rate: May 2013 0.77% down from April 2013 0.89 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/unemployment-rate

[kurnell]

My daughter is in year 3 this year. One more year and I can get her working.

[khunron13]

Fortunately they stopped at 4th grade, so there won't be an exodus of BGs from Nana Plaza or Soi Cowboy!

[theblether]

Thailand would really do itself a favor by opening up to foreign workers who are better qualified and more capable of doing certain jobs. Their unemployment rate is already less than 1% so it's unreasonable to talk about "stealing jobs" away from Thais.

Who told you the unemployment rate was less than 1%? The Thai government? You'd be better off listening to the Tooth Fairy.

You really shouldn't argue when you don't know... Unless you know better than the Bank of Thailand

Thailand Unemployment Rate: May 2013 0.77% down from April 2013 0.89 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/unemployment-rate

How do they count it?........

I think you'll find they have no mechanism to do so and they pluck a figure out of the air. However you being extraordinarily wise, you will know.

Over to you.

[SMSinBangkok]

Thainess Promotion: Instead of getting qualified tour guides (either paying better to higher educated or God forbid a native speaker) to lead tourists around, we will now lower the education level to the 4th grade to get more quality tour guides for "High End Tourists".

Truly Amazing Thailand (TAT). I feel sorry for the Thais, they are so full of themselves that noeone worries about that they are going to get their asses kicked when ASEAN kicks in in 2016.

Personally I worry about my ex-girlfriend who now has a good job as a sales secretary for an upscale global property company in Pattaya. Her base salary is 18.000 a month pluss overtime, tips and the occasional commision for a sale (which sometimes amounts to 30.000-50.000 baht). She speaks English to some degree (I have tried to help her). But my God, when the fluent Filippino girls come here as ASEAN workers they could easily take her job.....

[SMSinBangkok]

my wife was tg in phuket,speaks perfect english/russian,was so good all she did was babysit a family/ies when here long hours mega money,biggest comm,2.mbaht madness,took russians the biggest jewellery store in the world(well thats there slogan)on by-pass road phuket...pure commision my jaw hit the floor,that was 10 years ago,there is oodles of wedge to be earnt,if your willing to put in the hours....

Sorry winstonc, I lost my interest in your post after the first two senteces (correction - the whole post seems to be one sentence). If your wife´s English is equivalent of yours, I have a hard time understanding how she could make money...

[northernjohn]

Thailand would really do itself a favor by opening up to foreign workers who are better qualified and more capable of doing certain jobs. Their unemployment rate is already less than 1% so it's unreasonable to talk about "stealing jobs" away from Thais.

Yes that baffles me. We have Yingluck flying all over the world to attract investments into a country that dosen't have the man power to do the work.They may have a 1% unemployment rate which is a highly doubtful figure to me. I would be willing to bet they have a higher than 1% rate of people who refuse to work.

But I bet they have a far larger percent of foreign workers than 1%

[boomerangutang]

Thailand would really do itself a favor by opening up to foreign workers who are better qualified and more capable of doing certain jobs. Their unemployment rate is already less than 1% so it's unreasonable to talk about "stealing jobs" away from Thais.

Who told you the unemployment rate was less than 1%? The Thai government? You'd be better off listening to the Tooth Fairy.

You really shouldn't argue when you don't know... Unless you know better than the Bank of Thailand

Thailand Unemployment Rate: May 2013 0.77% down from April 2013 0.89 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/unemployment-rate

Where did they conduct a survey - going shop to shop at Paradon mall? Under 1%, that's completely unrealistic. Thais are remiss at conducting surveys at the best of times, and surveys are always heavily weighted to reflect what the current gov't wants to project.

I personally know dozens of hills tribers and Thais, - most of whom don't have over 20 baht in their pockets at any given time, or more than Bt.250 in a bank account, if they even have an account.

[chooka]

Aren't there at least 4000 expats in the country with degrees and who can speak the language required, who can fill the positions. Oh no wait silly me, a Thai 4th grader has a higher standard of education than a university educated farang. What is their issue with hiring farangs? Geez go to Melbourne and catch a taxi you won't find an aussie driving one and the tour guides on Yarra River and other attractions are overseas students. Go to an information Kiosk and again you will find an overseas student working there.

Edited August 6, 2013 by chooka

[Thai at Heart]

Aren't there at least 4000 expats in the country with degrees and who can speak the language required, who can fill the positions. Oh no wait silly me, a Thai 4th grader has a higher standard of education than a university educated farang. What is their issue with hiring farangs? Geez go to Melbourne and catch a taxi you won't find an aussie driving one and the tour guides on Yarra River and other attractions are overseas students. Go to an information Kiosk and again you will find an overseas student working there.

Ah, but they don't understand thainess.....

[sonar6ca]

The Thai government lowered the minimum education requirements needed to become a tour guide from grade nine to grade fourth on Monday.

I might add that those in the government that make decisions are intellectually challenged themselves, don't you love Thai logic?

[boomerangutang]

Aren't there at least 4000 expats in the country with degrees and who can speak the language required, who can fill the positions. Oh no wait silly me, a Thai 4th grader has a higher standard of education than a university educated farang. What is their issue with hiring farangs? Geez go to Melbourne and catch a taxi you won't find an aussie driving one and the tour guides on Yarra River and other attractions are overseas students. Go to an information Kiosk and again you will find an overseas student working there.

I agree with what's written, except for the 'higher standard of education' thing. It's people with 'higher education' who make some of the dumbest decisions known to man and beast. To me, a diploma has as much bearing on a person's intelligence as a watermelon has ability to design a bridge. There should be ways to gauge a person's prowess (for job abilities, for example) - that's more decisive than that person waving some piece of paper with fancy writing and logo.

One of the most adept tour guides I've met anywhere (and I've resided in a dozen countries), is a Burmese fellow who guides people around a tourist town. He's got zero formal education, bad teeth, ragged dirty clothes, ......but he can hold an intellectual conversation on SE Asian history (in very good English) that would leave a diploma'd person dumbstruck. Unfortunately, a person like that wouldn't have a chance of a snowflake in Hades of getting a salaried job - by conventional standards.

[stoli]

Jethro only got through 4th grade, and he was still able to give tours of Beverly Hills. Of course, he was 35 at the time.