Better incentives needed to boost vocational courses: Thai Education Minister

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CHALK TALK
Better incentives needed to boost vocational courses
CHULARAT SAENGPASSA

BANGKOK: -- EACH YEAR, German conglomerates like Siemens welcome over 1,000 student trainees. Within months, they are trained to assemble integrated circuits and when the course is finished, they must be able to explain what they have done.

Students with such skills are also in high demand in Thailand. As a result, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang has made the right move in issuing the policy to boost the number of vocational students. Yet, its success depends on how educational units implement it.

It is more than absurd to hear that a measure to boost the number of vocational students is likely to reduce the availability of seats at conventional schools, so that those unable to attend the schools would be encouraged to join vocational schools. Last week, Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretary-general Apichart Jeerawuth announced a plan to limit the number of seats per general-education class for senior secondary education levels to 40 only from the next academic year onward.

The Obec has to date allowed up to 50 students per room where necessary.

Apichart said his agency might also raise the minimum grade point average requirement for Mathayom 3 graduates who wished to enrol in general-education programmes from 2.00 to either 2.50 or 2.30.

He has explained that these changes are planned to help Chaturon achieve his goal of putting the ratio of general-education students to vocational students at 51:49 by 2015. The current ratio is at 36:64.

If Obec really goes ahead with its plan, students will be forced rather than encouraged to go for vocational-education programmes.

If vocational students are not interested in what they learn, the country's various industries will continue to face a shortage of qualified staff.

Thai authorities, therefore, should realise that they need to motivate students to seek vocational knowledge and introduce a holistic approach that covers everything from the quality of vocational schools/colleges, to accreditation of vocational graduates' skills, the participation by prospective employers, and the availability of jobs.

Why do students prefer to continue their education in the general programme? Most say they want to go to the university and get a good job. Most students also feel those going to vocational schools or colleges have poorer academic performance.

So, if Obec raises the minimum GPA requirements for those going to the Obec's general education programme, it will simply reinforce the stigma on vocational graduates. Besides, its move to limit the number of seats in the general-education programme will not be practical, given that the most illustrious schools now have to seat up to 50 students per room.

Laos and Vietnam in fact have faced the shortage of vocational-education graduates like Thailand. They, however, have introduced more practical solutions. Laos, for example, has chosen to offer scholarships to students who agree to further their studies in the vocational fields promoted by the Lao government.

Nouphanh Outsa, who heads Laos' Vocat-ional Education Office, said Vientiane has given priority to vocational education. "For example, because our country needs carpenters, students can take carpentry courses for free. They also get allowances during their study," he said.

Dr Dao Viet Dung, vice director of Vietnam's Vinh University of Technology Education, said his country used a similar approach. "We have to promote fields where we want more graduates."

Chaiprug Sereerak, secretary-general of Thailand's Office of Vocational Education (Ovec), is aware that there are many flaws in Thailand's vocational-education sector. He calculates that the vocational schools are prone to offer training in so many vocational fields that their graduates do not have any real expertise in any specific field. He has also admitted that Ovec schools/colleges have still failed to attract enough professionals from industries and have had very limited teaching material.

However, he has already started many efforts to address the problems. For example, under his leadership, Ovec will test vocational students' knowledge before they are allowed to graduate with a vocational certificate.

Dr Anusorn Sangnimnuan, who chairs the Vocational Education Commission, also came up with an interesting initiative to encourage big corporations to spend their CSR budget on vocational students. Scholarships are to be considered, if the Finance Ministry agrees to provide a tax incentive for them.

Chaturon said he instructed Ovec to match its plans with the Bt2-trillion infrastructure |projects. "Then, children will see clearly that they can get a job as soon as they graduate from a vocational school or college," he said.

A solid and tangible plan is needed to achieve this. Jobs linked to vocational skills must be the first to lure people to vocational schools. Thus, vocational schools and colleges also need to improve services, to meet market demands. Many want to get a Siemens apprenticeship, knowing it would help them win employment contracts at the German or other companies with those skills learned there.


-- The Nation 2013-10-28

[noitom]

Vocational education and English is where Thais should concentrate.

[MaxLee]

But, but, but, dear Education Minister: vocational school are just for brawlers and violent kids. No way that an average middle to high class Thai would ever think about studying something that requires them to do "dirty work"....

[NongKhaiKid]

More good, and badly needed, changes suggested by the Minister but, and it's a big but, change is up against an entrenched system supported by those who benefit from it.

What's the point of seeking a higher grade point average from students or making testing more comprehensive when, for example, we all know that money changing hands sorts things out ?

[pisico]

More good, and badly needed, changes suggested by the Minister but, and it's a big but, change is up against an entrenched system supported by those who benefit from it.

What's the point of seeking a higher grade point average from students or making testing more comprehensive when, for example, we all know that money changing hands sorts things out ?

A young Thai teacher, friend of mine, candidly confessed to me that in order for him to get a position in a school he would have to wait for someone with tenure to die or, pay to have that position created or someone displaced.

This fellow, a good person, with a higher than normal level of integrity, is woefully lacking in knowledge of the world surrounding him. He reacted surprised when I explained to him that there were 2 magnetic poles and that below the Equator the compass would point South. "No way!" he blurted. I never heard that before!"

Are Thai teachers better prepared than him?

[rotary]

Many countries have problems in training people in vocations that are useful. It seems we have a world of Masters & PHDs with most in the west not knowing the basics of welding, using a lathe, or simple mechanic work. In the west is is easier to hire a degree than it is too get a good mechanic and this is the reason of the decline in the west. Sad.

Edited October 28, 2013 by rotary

[SOTIRIOS]

..another 2 trillion.......???

...so now you see what this gimmick is all about.....

...in a country where 50%-80% of students fail.....but nobody is allowed to fail.....

[Spare]

Vocational education in Thailand are targeting only 2 groups of student:

Mentally challenged &

Gangster/drug users

[cup-O-coffee]

Sounds like another foreign handout is being manipulated by the Thai mind so that more time can be bought for the stupid to still do nothing.

"...trained to assemble integrated circuits." Give me a break. Those jobs are basically a joke. A NASA chimp could sit there and using the error-proof templates and shadow boxes, place the square, blue chip in the square position and solder it.

This article makes like the assembly grunt is smarter than the guy who polishes helicopter blades.

The really sad thing about this is that those apprentices will mock up their CVs with "auspicious" and amazing diatribe (translated: outright lies) so that when perhaps their potential employer places them in front of a different template than the Siemen's template, and instead there are are round, red chips, they will sit there with that dumb, dead-pan face we are all so familiar with and fidget until the interviewer tells them to take a hike.

At a grassroots level, this is how it goes, and all this bullshit talk about skills and training amounts to being able to do what a chimp could do. Ask them why that is, and they couldn't tell you in a million years. All they know is that the square, blue chip goes in the square hole, and no foreign employer out there is being fooled by all this Thai-talking BS.

Edited October 28, 2013 by cup-O-coffee

[Thaddeus]

More good, and badly needed, changes suggested by the Minister but, and it's a big but, change is up against an entrenched system supported by those who benefit from it.

What's the point of seeking a higher grade point average from students or making testing more comprehensive when, for example, we all know that money changing hands sorts things out ?

A young Thai teacher, friend of mine, candidly confessed to me that in order for him to get a position in a school he would have to wait for someone with tenure to die or, pay to have that position created or someone displaced.

This fellow, a good person, with a higher than normal level of integrity, is woefully lacking in knowledge of the world surrounding him. He reacted surprised when I explained to him that there were 2 magnetic poles and that below the Equator the compass would point South. "No way!" he blurted. I never heard that before!"

Are Thai teachers better prepared than him?

I'm not in the slightest bit surprised he has never heard that before.

Opposing received wisdom.

This may shock you but, the water in the sink or toilet flowing clockwise or anti-clockwise has nothing to do with which hemisphere you are in.

Unlike the earth's magnetic field.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Thaddeus