In an open-air workshop at Don Muang Technical College, students stand in front of a row of vices, each of which holds a short, thick iron bar. Their uniform T-shirts quickly become covered with iron dust as they take to the bars with hand files, attempting to whittle them down to size.
Satawat Kuta, 16, grips the handle of the file with one hand as he uses the other to apply even weight to its tip. It’s slow, tedious work — made even more frustrating by the fact the task could be completed using a metal lathe or grinder in a fraction of the time. But instead of using power tools, the school requires first-year students like Satawat to spend at least six hours per week practising how to use a hand file.
“They have to get into the action and get their hands dirty,” said Permsin Choeysiri, the school’s director.
At the end of the semester, students have to reduce the thickness of their iron bar from 25 millimetres to 20, and polish it to make a small iron hammer with a wooden handle.
Satawat said his decision to study at a vocational school rather than a regular high school after finishing Matthayom 3, or Grade 9, was a personal choice. “I want to take over the running of my family’s car repair shop,” he said.
Although the classes can be mundane and repetitive, Satawat is unfazed. “Any mechanic must learn how to do this [use a hand file]. Besides, this teaches me patience.”
An education that suits them: Jatuporn Sibsiri, 18, centre, moved from Nakhon Ratchasima to study at the Science-Based Technology Vocational College in Chon Buri.
BACK TO BASICS
Next to the workshop, 16-year-old Korakot Ployplaikaew is using a solid square to draw three-dimensional renderings of various objects. After finishing Matthayom 3 at Photinimit Vitthayalai School in Bangkok, Korakot moved to Don Muang Technical College to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer.
“Normal school will not teach you about basic technical skills,” he said.
But other students at the school are less ambitious, using vocational education to escape a mainstream schooling system in which they struggled to keep up. Tawatchai Tanasangnuson, 16, said he moved to the Don Muang college after finishing middle school in Phetchabun province because he “is not good academically”, and moving to Bangkok meant he could stay with his mother.
The attitudes highlight the battle of public perception that rages around vocational education: many parents see technical school as a place for children with few options, rather than somewhere to learn the valuable hands-on skills that are in such high demand from Thai employers.
In reality, vocational schools attract a diverse group of students, and despite a general perception that vocational students have a tendency to misbehave, more than 80% of students who finish the first three years of school-level vocational training will continue their studies at a higher level.
Vocational education in Thailand is broken into three levels: the certificate in vocational education, which is taken during the upper secondary school period, or from the age of 16-18, as an alternative to regular high school; followed by the technical diploma; and finally the higher diploma.
Mr Permsin said many of his students were ambitious and entered the vocational system with plans to move on to respected technical colleges such as King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology.
“These students know what they want and chose technical school over normal high school because it is a practical choice for them to pursue their careers,” Mr Permsin said.
But technical colleges have long struggled to attract as many students as demanded by the market. The image of vocational students tends to be associated with violence, driven by frequent news reports about brawls between students from rival colleges. This perception discourages some students from attending vocational schools despite the significantly better employment opportunities they can offer in certain professions.
Chaipruek Sereerak, secretary-general of the Vocational Education Commission, believes that trend is about to change.
“We have seen a remarkable increase in the number of students choosing to go to technical college rather than high school since last year,” he said.
That increase is no accident, coming on the back efforts to address a problem that has long been crippling businesses both big and small.
Vital skills: Korakot Ployplaikaew, 16, hopes studying at Don Muang Technical College will help him become an engineer.
LABOUR CRISIS
Thailand is in the middle of a dire shortage of skilled workers, according to Piyabutr Cholvijarn, president of the Kenan Institute Asia, an NGO focused on sustainable development.
“The industrial sector is now facing a crisis — a lack of a skilled workforce particularly in three main sectors: energy, automobile and electronic parts,” he said.
“This chronic problem will gradually hurt national competitiveness.”
In the past couple of years, business associations such as the Federation of Thai Industries have voiced concerns over the severe shortage of technicians to serve the rising needs of industry.
A recent World Bank survey found that Thailand’s shortage of skilled labour was the worst in Asean. Almost 39% of employers surveyed said they faced a shortage of skilled workers, compared to second-ranked Malaysia with 20.2%. In Indonesia, just 4.5% of employers reported problems finding skilled labour.
Mr Piyabutr attributed the lack of skilled workers to four factors: the transition towards an aged society; a shortage of specialised teachers; workers being taught irrelevant skills; and the attitudes of parents towards vocational education.
He said there was market demand for around 180,000 vocational graduates annually, but only 20,000 were being produced.
Mr Chaipruek said there was a prevailing public perception that vocational education graduates would end up working in low-level factory roles with no career opportunities. A series of news stories about vocational students fighting each other has also tainted the overall image of students, he said.
But Mr Chaipruek said while the cases of fighting were high profile, the students involved where in the minority.
“The brawls are limited to some 10 technical schools in Bangkok and its perimeter, with only a small number of students involved,” he said.
“It does not happen that often but whenever it happens, it leaves a profound impact on the overall image of vocational students.”
Mr Permsin, the Don Muang college director, said despite there being no violent incidents involving his students since he took up the post two years ago, students are still discouraged from wearing uniforms when taking public buses home.
“Even if it is not our students who start the brawl, we cannot control students from other schools,” he said.
Path to work: Don Muang Technical College students learn computer skills that will be useful later when they enter the workforce. Thailand is facing a shortage of skilled workers.
BUCKING THE TREND
But the very threat of violence is enough to deter some young people.
Sorawich Thairungroj, a Matthayom 5 student at Saint Gabriel’s College, wants to be an engineer. But he chose to study at a regular high school rather than a technical school partly because of the latter’s reputation for violence.
“I have never seen anyone engaging in a fight in person, but I have seen it in the news,” he said.
Sorawich acknowledged his education would lack hands-on experience, but he is confident his stronger academic credentials will help him gain entrance to a university degree in engineering.
The ratio of technical students to high school students had been in decline for much of the past decade, but that trend began to reverse last year as a result of government efforts to promote vocational education.
Mr Chaipruek, from the education commission, said the government plans to increase the ratio of high school students to technical students to 50:50 by 2017, from last year’s ratio of 67:33.
Enrolments are already on track to hit that target, with the ratio this year closing the gap slightly to 61:39, an increase of 40,000 vocational students compared to last year.
Part of this turnaround, Mr Chaipruek said, can be attributed to the commission’s efforts to convince parents that the majority of vocational students are not involved in violence and have attractive career opportunities.
This has been achieved partly through career counselling sessions for middle-school students, organised by the commission, and vocational school open days like one earlier this month in Sing Buri province.
Warintorn Buaphan, 15, a Matthayom 3 student, attended the event. “I am interested in continuing my studies at vocational college instead of high school,” she said. “The majority of my friends plan to go to high school, but I want to learn something that will make it easy for me to find a job upon graduation.”
Efforts have also been made to curb technical schools’ reputation for violence, with camps being held at a Royal Thai Navy base in April before school resumed in May. The three-week boot camp was attended by 600 students from different colleges, with the aim of developing a sense of brotherhood to counter long-held grudges and deter conflict.
“We have to instil a sense of brotherhood among the first-year students before their behaviour is influenced by the senior students. When they become friends, they should not fight each other,” Mr Chaipruek said.
“Next year, the commission will increase the number of participating students to 16,000 after it receives a budget of 44 million baht from the government.”
DEGREES OF DIFFERENCE
For the past three years, the private sector has been actively involved in a “bilateral” project to help train vocational students, offering them 18-month placements. The placements are undertaken while the students are studying, and they are paid a small wage for their efforts. Last year, 8,086 companies participated in the project, with a total of 86,000 students.
Next year, the commission plans to increase the number of companies to 13,000, and students to 130,000.
Mr Chaipruek noted 80% of the vocational certificate students continue their studies at college level largely because Thais still perceive tertiary qualifications as necessary when applying for jobs. Half of those who complete their higher diploma will continue their studies at university level.
For those who don’t complete their higher diploma, entrance to university is still possible, but generally only for social science degrees. Some students opt to take this path, thinking a bachelor’s degree will help them secure work. But the prospects are usually grim.
“It’s a pity that they decide to change their field of study,” he said.
“Some with social science degrees cannot find work and then have to use their vocational certificates to get a job.”
Mr Chaipruek said hands-on experience is essential, pointing out some engineering graduates went through the regular education system but failed to display even basic technical skills.
“There have been cases where a technical college hires a lecturer who graduated from an engineering faculty at a well-known university, and that lecturer did not know how to demonstrate basic things such as winding motor coils,” he said.
LEARNING TO INNOVATE
In a bid to produce more technical experts and bridge the widening gap between students’ skills and technological innovation, the Vocational Education Commission five years ago established science-based technology colleges in Chon Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima, Lamphun, Sing Buri and Phangnga.
Jatuporn Sibsiri, an 18-year-old from Nakhon Ratchasima, has recently started studying at the Science-Based Technology Vocational College in Chon Buri.
“I think the college will pave the way for me to become an electrical engineer,” he said, shortly after giving a presentation on automatic gas ignition to an academic convention in Sing Buri.
After three years of study, he plans to continue his education at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology.
Attaporn Kaiarb, 18, another student from the same school, said he chose to study in the science-based college because normal high school would not give him the opportunity to learn practical skills. “My parents are not worried about student brawls because we live on campus,” he said.
These specialised colleges differ from other technical colleges in two key ways: Students are required to live on campus in boarding schools, and lecturers from sister universities, such as King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, help teach subjects such as physics and chemistry.
“The students are trained to not only be technicians, but are encouraged to be innovators,” Mr Chaipruek said. n
BY THE NUMBERS
180,000: The number of vocational college graduates required by Thai businesses each year. Only 20,000 are being produced.
293,095: The total number of vocational certificate students this year, compared to 456,852 in normal high school.
50:50: The government’s planned ratio for high school students to technical students by 2017, from the last year’s ratio of 67:33.
80: The percentage of school-level vocational graduates who will continue their studies at a higher level.
86,000: The number of students given placements at 8,086 companies last year. Next year, it is hoped the figures will rise to 130,000 and 13,000 respectively.
44 million: The budget, in baht, to run military boot camps next year for 16,000 new vocational students.