Vocational Education and Training Reform

Introduction
In developing a country's competitiveness, the development of the middle-level manpower is one of the main issues to be considered.
Thailand realizes the importance of this matter and emphasizes the need to develop vocational and training of the country in the National Education Bill which is going to be in force in the very near future.
Dr. Chinnapat Bhumirat, the Director of the Bureau of Educational Policy Development and Strategic Planning, Office of the National Education Commission, gives his opinions to Khun Wallapat Sritongsuk on this matter :

Questions

1. According to the National Education Bill, is there any provision on vocational education and training? If any, what are the major concerns that shall be reformed?
According to the National Education Bill, there is no specific provision on vocational education and training. However, in Section 20, it stipulates that vocational education and training shall be provided in educational institutions belonging to the State, the private sector, and enterprises in accord with the Vocational Education Act and relevant laws. This means that we must have a special law for vocational education and training in the near future. That law, of course, would lead to the reform of vocational education and training.
Let me elaborate a little more about the areas that need to be reformed. There are at least about 3-4 areas that we ought to pay attention to:
    1. The planning system. As you may already know that there are many organizations responsible for vocational education and training. Each organization has its own plan and targets in producing middle-level manpower for the country. But in the process of planning, these organizations did not have accurate information as to what the demand of the labor market would be 3-5 years from now. We actually don't have an information on demand projection available. That's why we have to face the problem of imbalance between supply and demand. Thus, many vocational school leavers could not find a job and become unemployed.
    2. The quality of school leavers is not satisfactory. From a follow-up study, it was indicated that the vocational school leavers did not have adequate skills to work. Many enterprises had to provide additional training for them. This implies that we need to improve the quality of vocational education and training in terms of
      - teachers
      - administrators
      - training equipments
    3. The lack of private participation in vocational education and training is also a crucial problem especially in the period of rapid technological advancement. The government could not keep up with the new technology which requires a lot of investment. Therefore, the private enterprise could help a great deal in providing training for the students. However, up to now, the state has not provided adequate incentives for the private sector.

2. The National Education Bill also emphasizes on Dual System between vocational schools and private enterprises, how do you think about the possibility of success in putting that system into action? (Please also define 'Dual System')
At present we have some cooperation with the private sector in vocational education and training or the so-called "Dual-System". This is one of the most effective ways in providing vocational education, because students learn theoretical knowledge form schools and gain practical experience from the industry. However, the number of enterprises that could provide this kind of opportunity is quite limited. Most of them are large enterprises having hundreds of employees. We need to encourage more private enterprises to participate in this kind of activities.

3. In case of vocational training in private enterprises, how would the Government promote those enterprises to join in the Dual System in order that they will accordingly accept many more students for training in their organizations?
The way in which government could encourage the private enterprises to join in the dual-system should be financial benefit or tax incentive. At present the dual system is being conducted on a voluntary basis. However, this method is not sustainable and we could not expand the scale of training. The government should provide concrete measure, such as, tax reduction per student. The more number of students that the enterprise has provided training, the more tax reduction it should get. In addition, there could be more measures to promote private participation, put the development of incentives should really reflect the interest of the private sector. Therefore, we need to sit down and discuss between government officials and private enterprise representatives.

4. Do you think whether the reform will improve the quality of vocational schools or learners?
Another aspect of reform should focus on the quality of vocational school leavers. As I mentioned earlier that school leavers could not perform once they start working right away. This reflects the problem of our evaluation system which tends to put more emphasis on theoretical knowledge rather than competency or actual performance. It would be useful if we could develop "vocational qualifications system". This could help educational and training institutions to follow as a guideline for their training programs. So I believe that 'vocational qualification system' would be a good instrument toward quality improvement. However, in achieving this goal we need to put a lot of effort in improving teaching staff and training equipment in order to obtain effective training process.

5. I heard that you attended the international conference on Vocational Education and Training in the Republic of Korea, would you mind sharing experience on this matter?
I recently went to attend an international conference on VET in the Republic of Korea. The conference was organized by UNESCO. From attending that conference, I'm convinced that education reform is a global movement and VET is a major part of reform. The objective of the conference was to redefine VET policy to address the employment and socio-economic challenges of the early years of the 21st century. During the conference a Chinese proverb was raised saying 'When the winds of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills'. This proverb reminds us that we need to prepare for the forthcoming challenges of the next century. But whether our strategy would be passive or proactive, it's up to what we decide today.

The major trend in vocational education and training could be summarized as follows:
    1. The preparation of individuals to have adaptive skills through VET and that must be a lifelong process to help individuals to upgrade themselves and be able to change career if the economic environment would change in the future.
    2. In order to promote adaptability, the curriculum would be more general than specialized. There is a merging trend between general education and vocational education.
    3. The knowledge and skills that would be required of the new generation include technology, the environment, the understanding of foreign languages and cultures, entrepreneurial capacity, and the skills to organize service industries including leisure and tourism which have been growing rapidly.
    4. Finally, the provision of VET must be based on partnership of government, industry and society. This partnership must create a coherent legislative framework to enable a national strategy for change.
On this last note, I think Thailand is moving toward the right direction, because we are at the stage to enact the new National Education Bill. The next step is the legislation of vocational education and training which wuld create necessare infrastructure and mechanisms for a closer cooperation between all of the stakeholder. I believe through partnerships we are able to overcome any kind of challenges of the future.

NB - The interview above will be broadcasted
on Radio Thailand FM 95.5 & 105.0 MHz
on Saturday, July 10, 1999 at 7.00-7.30 a.m.