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TVET: the clue to guide us through the “Thailand 4.0” labyrinth
With the inauguration of the “Thailand 4.0” strategy, technical and vocational education and training will be a critical factor towards achievement of goals. We invited human resource development specialist Philip Hayworth to indicate some of his major conclusions following extensive research regarding Thailand’s vocational education environment.
Phil Hayworth has been a Journalist, teacher and consultant in Asia/Pacific for 30 years. He holds credentials in education and economics and is currently a doctoral candidate in Human Resource Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne.
The following are his responses to our questions on vocational education issues:
– Why are you interested in Thailand, skills development and Vocational Education?
I’m a believer in TVET (technology and vocational education and training) rather than just general education, especially at high school level and beyond. Combinations of both are likely best for a sustainable and equitable economy, especially with the Thailand 4.0 goals involving spending billions in the next 20 years. I lean to a ratio of at least 60:40 TVET-to-general. This focus on TVET is a core component of the Asian Development State and Skills Formation system – concepts first expressed in Japan and Singapore and, later, South Korea and modern China, all built on an able, flexible workforce ready to meet industrial and technological demand. Yes, social science and the arts are crucial to any truly interesting society. Each country has different natural advantages: Singapore sits on critical shipping lanes; Japan has a strong national identity and Keiretsu hub-and-spoke systems, which Korea followed; China has population and capacity to absorb and replicate outside technology. But these alone would mean little if their citizens weren’t psychologically unified and ready to work hard. Trauma and conflict have played crucial roles in the development of these states built above all on nation-building to promote national identity and ensure survival, writes University College London Professor Andy Green. Additionally, their citizens were trained to meet demand – called “manpower planning”. It’s part free market, part planned. It’s a philosophy that says: If you build it, they will come. And come they did – to Singapore, China, Korea, Japan, and, today, countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Thailand.
– Where does Thailand rate in skills development and how to make vocational education more effective?
Thailand’s largest investors are Japanese who lament that barely 5 percent of Thailand’s vocational graduates meet minimum Japanese standards. Singapore found a solution by forcing companies to train workers first or pay a significant tax to fund schools. The result was the creation of the world-renown Nanyang Technical University which merged with Singapore’s National Institute of Education. With close business-government cooperation, together they produce a tight fit between supply and demand. The “school-in-factory” model in Thailand can work if they follow Singapore’s lead, but it could backfire as Malaysia and Vietnam vie with Thailand for attraction of international corporate investment.
– Is there a skills gap and middle income trap in this country?
The middle-income trap implies that a country can’t compete with low-wage countries and lacks skills to compete with high-wage countries. Thailand will be trapped if it fails to educate and open up to innovation and ideas that lead to high-value products and services. As Thailand 4.0 moves forward and the population ages – along with the new “Silk Road” project which is China’s plan to link via land and sea between China, Southeast and Central Asia. This gap between demand and supply will grow. Rail from Southern China south through Laos and Thailand will need workers. Businesses will sprout up along the way. The Kra Canal project in Southern Thailand will create TVET demand, too. But where Chinese money is the primary source of funding, China prefers Chinese workers and engineers, so others could take jobs that could go to Thais. There are 700 million Chinese still living in the countryside, with another 300 million eking out meagre livings under extremely poor conditions. They could fill those jobs, so Thais will need to skill up to compete.
– Why is vocational education disfavoured as compared with more academic education?
My theory of the “Lost Boys” mentality is that TVET is reserved for those academically less-inclined males. It’s a bad rap. TVET experts envision a skilled, grey-collar worker – a Renaissance Man with a tool belt – with the 21st Century skills, self-directed, the income to own land and globally marketable; linguists with soft skills and not just a welder; a would be entrepreneur, adaptable, with the hard and soft skills to go anywhere, their quality assured through globally-recognised credentials via the Sydney, Dublin and Washington Accords. So TVET today is misbranded. It means freedom and high income, and not just the pursuit of Lost Boys. TVET must be re-branded and take a prestigious place in Thailand 4.0. TVET graduates are the perfect workers for this globalizing region.
– What are the best solutions to overcome these prejudices?
Prestige. Thailand needs to create “Meister” schools that graduate workers with prestigious credentials. This will inspire hard work, proving that TVET is vastly more rewarding than scraping by in the countryside where Thailand 4.0 farming techniques and automation will displace more Thais. South Korea has “Meister” high schools. The Philippines trains medical and maritime workers who leave and return, contributing more than 15 percent to GDP. To overcome the “lost boys” mentality, Thailand will need to first overcome the “mama’s boy” mentality – and that begins in the home.
– Thais excel in art, design, fashion, weaving, software and automotive engineering. Is it the teaching rather than the natural skill that is lacking?
Art, fashion, weaving, software design and other small industries that can’t drive an economy will be out-sourced to those who can do them at less cost, especially anything digital. But history and culture play a far more important role. Specifically, Confucian-based economies thrive due to great investment in education, although Japanese Buddhism, too, encourages deep learning and attention to detail. Hence specialization. In China, the heroes are Einstein and Elon Musk. In Thailand, they’re Bieber and Beyoncé. Inspiration needs to penetrate the home, culture and school, so decentralising education bottom-up is a start. Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin recently said that Education for Thailand 4.0 allows just this sort of autonomy at the bottom or micro level, giving teachers more choice to teach subjects based on their interests. Meanwhile, Thailand has 20,000 bureaucrats who don’t teach but are running schools. Vietnam has 70.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1359827/tvet-the-clue-to-guide-us-through-the-thailand-4-0-labyrinth