Asean youth development on agenda
EDUCATION Development Centre (EDC) v ice president Rebecca J Stoeck le lauded the Thailand 4.0 development agenda, which she ca lled “a wonderful centra lisation of government initiatives” wit h enormous investment i n infrastructure.
“We also see rising challenges brought by an ageing population. With those key phenomena, it is critical to emphasise human capital development where nobody is going to be left behind, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds,” she said.
“The main concern is t hat a lot of foreign direct investment [FDI] flowing into Southeast Asian countries is not being invested in loca l human capita l development. They have not ta ken advantage of the opportunit y to institutiona lise ways to make sure t hat FDI actua lly does translate into loca l human capita l development.
“Examples can be found in Thailand’s automotive industry over the past 20 years, where the local people’s skills have not sufficiently been upgraded. That has spurred the same concern in the case of the S-Curve industry under Thailand 4.0 today.
“We want to show you a good example of a German partner who has worked on that. They have helped create a system that engages vocational schools in the industries and vice versa. We thus want to make sure that we can introduce such a dual-track system locally in the country and develop the local talent pipeline.
“As Thailand progresses into industry 4.0, this will be absolutely critical. And issues related to human resources development should be more cross-sectoral, rather than just a matter of a single ministry taking care of it,” said Stoeckle.
EDC is a global non-profit organisation that offers lasting solutions to improve education, promote health and expand economic oppor- tunity. Since 1958, the centre has been a leader in designing, implementing and evaluating powerful and innovative programmes in more than 80 countries around the world.
EDC has also implemented Accelerating Work Achievement and Readiness for Employment 2 (Aware 2), which is to realise an impressive mandate – to position technical and vocational education and training (TVET) graduates for success in the digital economy.
Funded by JP Morgan and implemented by EDC, Aware 2 has provided timely, innovative skills training and work-based learning opportunities to Asean youth who are prepared to enter the workforce and innovate in the digital economies in Thailand, Philippines and Indo- nesia. Now in its third and final year, the organisation seeks to highlight and further build upon the success of its programme through continued innovation and by building new alliances and opportunities.
‘Soft skills enhancement’
The Aware 2 leadership was convened in Bangkok recently to share some of the best practices and lessons from the project, with an aim to identify additional partners and opportunities to advance Aware 2’s reach and impact.
“For EDC, we focus on enhancement of soft skills, creativity, teamwork, initiative, in addition to technical skills for our TVET students to be able to succeed in a world where jobs are much more fluid and people are moving around from firm to firm. As we have seen, most large firms are successful largely due to great support from SMEs.
“So we need to develop more students who are able to drive innovation in those small and medium-sized firms so that they are not falling behind. Let’s say innovation is not only produced by the company’s top specialists or bosses, but can also be contributed by young staff who are able to introduce new business models,” said Stoeckle.
TVET programmes need to be much more adaptable and train students to perform cross-sectorally, said Stoeckle. They also need to create programmes that are more flexible in terms of curricula and faculty who are no longer identical in skills and backgrounds.
“We want to promote authentic engagement between industry and schools,” she said, adding that it was interesting to see Australian university graduates who wanted to get a good job go for vocational training.
Speaking about the shortage of human capital in the workplace today, Stoeckle said she found there were enough competent workers out there but they just had not got the right jobs – the ones that fit their competencies and the company’s needs.
“I think this is largely due to cultural factors in which a family, especially disadvantaged families, always make tremendous sacrifices to pay for the university education of their children. Often their students do not achieve the credentials or the skills that they actually need to get a good job.
“So we try to strengthen the TVET programmes and foster a new perception that students can have a good job in the digital economy without paying for a university education. And for employers, it is often a wonderful bargain because entr y-level salaries of TVET students are low, while the skill levels are good enough,” she said.