Employers urged to check job candidates’ education bona fides

[webfact]

Employers urged to check job candidates’ education bona fides
By The Nation

 

On Sunday, city police chief Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn presents the four suspects charged with conspiring to falsify education certificates for sale on the Internet.

 

BANGKOK: -- Businesses should directly verify job candidates' education qualifications with educational institutes to guard against employing people using fake qualifications, said Education Ministry permanent secretary Chaipruek Serirak said on Tuesday. 

 

He said most state agencies had a strict background checking system for job candidates and people found using fake certificates and degrees would be charged with forgery.

 

Chaipruek's commented following Sunday’s arrest of two groups of suspects for allegedly selling fake diplomas and other educational certificates on social media.

 

"The buying and selling of fake educational papers exists,” Chaipruek said. “The fake certificates cite credentials from the Office of Basic Education Commission, the Office of the Non-Formal and Informal Education (NFE) and the Office of Vocational Education Commission. Hence, prospective employers must do thorough background checks.”

 

Office of Higher Education Commission chief Supat Champathong thanked police for arresting those allegedly selling fake credentials and urged officers to extend the net to nab more groups and to notify the universities whose names are used in fake papers so they can file police complaints. 

 

Supat said he believed university people were not involved in this illegal trade as most institutes had good student registration systems that prevented easy access to abusing information. 

 

He also urged employers to directly verify job candidates' credentials with universities – a process which took less than a month.

 

On Sunday, city police chief Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn presented the four suspects charged with conspiring to falsify education certificates for sale on the Internet along with seized evidence including 18 fake education certificates, 19 stamps of schools and universities, and bank account books they allegedly used to receive payments from customers. 

 

Kittiwat Charnwimonrat, 23, and Juthawadee Sirisuksawat, 21, were nabbed in Surin province while two other suspects from a separate group, Weerapol Khamsaeng, 25, and Lalita Kaewboonreung, 22, were nabbed in Ubon Ratchathani province. 

 

Metropolitan Police Area 2 police investigators probed the selling of fake credentials on social media and secured court-issued arrest warrants, working with local police to arrest them. 

 

Kittiwat allegedly admitted that he studied how to falsify the documents online and hired rubber stamp-making shops to produce the university and school seals for document falsifying. 

 

He allegedly said he sold the fake documents online for between Bt3,500 and Bt9,800 apiece, with most customers ordering Mathayom 3, Mathayom 6 and the NFE's Kor Sor Nor certificates.

 

He allegedly said he got up to 20 orders a month and had been selling the fake documents for two years, with some 600 customers in total.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30311998

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-04-11

[Cuchulainn]

That's 80% of language schools closed down then!!    

[shunter]

The O P refers to ''creative  degree's''  for Thai's in the main as opposed to non Thai  persons. I E . not teachers who may be employed  within the language school industry /profession

 

Quote

 

webfact Post I D.

 

He allegedly said he sold the fake documents online for between Bt3,500 and Bt9,800 apiece, with most customers ordering Mathayom 3, Mathayom 6 and the NFE's Kor Sor Nor certificates.

 

 

There is a problem there when checking   documents from let us say the U K .

 

The Data Protection Act.

 

Checks have to be authorised and often paid for and take time to validate.  

 

 

[timewilltell]

The process takes a month! Thailand 4.0 not quite up to speed then. How difficult to implement an online system to check?

[zaphod reborn]

There is way too much weight attached to educational degrees in Thailand.  University degrees are not necessary for most job roles, yet employers insist upon filling the positions with degree-holders, and giving higher salaries to staff with post-graduate qualifications.  Whereas, a university degree is a requirement for a work permit for a foreigner, except where waived by the MOL/DOE.  I've been in HR in Thailand for 10 years and I really see no difference between degree holders and non-degree holders.  Job skills are learned through work experience, not in a classroom.

[Anthony Loh]

22 minutes ago, zaphod reborn said:

There is way too much weight attached to educational degrees in Thailand.  University degrees are not necessary for most job roles, yet employers insist upon filling the positions with degree-holders, and giving higher salaries to staff with post-graduate qualifications.  Whereas, a university degree is a requirement for a work permit for a foreigner, except where waived by the MOL/DOE.  I've been in HR in Thailand for 10 years and I really see no difference between degree holders and non-degree holders.  Job skills are learned through work experience, not in a classroom.

?????? thumb up! Experience in life are always greater that the new degree holder as they don't have the experience in the work and make a lot of mistakes.

[Classic Ray]

Degree status is widely being used to validate a candidate's suitability for a post, and made a condition of obtaining a work permit in many countries, especially the Middle East. In my opinion knowledge gained through experience, especially in construction and engineering, are equal or superior to a degree. Many people came up through trade training where degrees were not a part of the qualification gained. I personally think it's used by lazy governments and HR departments as a filter, without considering overall suitability. With the increasing number of fake degrees available, and the no one fails mentality in Thai education, their value is increasingly questionable.

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, zaphod reborn said:

There is way too much weight attached to educational degrees in Thailand.  University degrees are not necessary for most job roles, yet employers insist upon filling the positions with degree-holders, and giving higher salaries to staff with post-graduate qualifications.  Whereas, a university degree is a requirement for a work permit for a foreigner, except where waived by the MOL/DOE.  I've been in HR in Thailand for 10 years and I really see no difference between degree holders and non-degree holders.  Job skills are learned through work experience, not in a classroom.

I think you have hit on something. Its all degrees degrees degrees no personal skills attitudes thinking outside the box personality only a paper mill mentality. Then there is the paper mill mentality combined with the young age factor. I guess thats why all those funny hotels with mirrors inside and a rubber sliding shroud to hide your license plate number have cropped up all over. 

Edited April 11, 2017 by elgordo38

[Rhys]

Oh really, the Ph.D from KSU will not be accepted. 

[lamyai3]

10 hours ago, zaphod reborn said:

There is way too much weight attached to educational degrees in Thailand.  University degrees are not necessary for most job roles, yet employers insist upon filling the positions with degree-holders, and giving higher salaries to staff with post-graduate qualifications.  Whereas, a university degree is a requirement for a work permit for a foreigner, except where waived by the MOL/DOE.  I've been in HR in Thailand for 10 years and I really see no difference between degree holders and non-degree holders.  Job skills are learned through work experience, not in a classroom.

Indeed, totally unrealistic requirement. Lack of a degree in the UK is normal in the job entry market, given that the qualifications attained on leaving school with are generally more than adequate to enter the workplace. 

[Retiredandhappyhere]

On 4/11/2017 at 1:26 PM, Cuchulainn said:

That's 80% of language schools closed down then!!    

And, despite what he says about Government agencies having a strict background checking system, I guess 90% of their officials would also lose their jobs.

[Anthony Loh]

Anyway to me is a lifetime degree would work out better that a education degree, unless he have been in the jobs for many many years to build up his experience in lifetime degree. Hahaha

Edited April 13, 2017 by Anthony Loh

[DrTuner]

Degrees are only useful for vetting out candidates for their first jobs. After that, it's the CV that matters.