The Department of Skill Development (DSD) and Chinese tech giant Huawei have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a three-year collaboration to strengthen Thailand's digital workforce, aiming to produce 3,000 digital skilled workers through ICT courses.
The department's 120 personnel will also undergo the ICT training.
Under the agreement, Huawei will provide training courses to increase digital skills for people in cooperation with DSD.
Abel Deng, chief executive of Huawei Technologies Thailand, said the two parties will create and facilitate learning opportunities and hands-on training focused on skill development, including reskilling and upskilling to ensure Thailand can match the needs of the labour market, reduce unemployment, raise incomes and improve the standard of living.
"The collaboration is in response to the need to develop a healthy digital ecosystem and rising demand for highly skilled workers, particularly with the arrival of new S-curve industries in line with the government's Thailand 4.0 policy," he said.
The MoU signing was conducted yesterday. During the event, Deputy Labour Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat granted certifications to graduates of Huawei's 5G network equipment installation course, which is a pilot project under the cooperation.
The graduates completed an 18-hour intensive course, held on Oct 19-21.
Mr Deng said the network installation course in a real-world environment targets training 300 technicians over the course of three years.
The programme covers topics such as 4G and 5G networks, as well as on-site training at base stations. Online courses will also be provided for 3,000 interested people.
"Huawei believes a strong and skilled workforce, especially in the ICT sector, forms the backbone of Thailand's successful move towards digitalisation," he said.
Huawei is committed to contributing to the country's socioeconomic development in the digital era to empower Thailand as a digital hub in Asia-Pacific, said Mr Deng.
He said Huawei appreciates Thailand's measures to control the spread of the coronavirus.
"In this new environment, digital and ICT technologies will continue to play a more important role for economic recovery," said Mr Deng.
Thailand climbed one spot to 39th out of 63 countries in the digital competitiveness ranking for 2020 released by the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
He said there is still room for the country to improve based on the Thailand 4.0 initiatives, especially in the knowledge and technical capabilities fields.
Huawei indicated earlier ICT will contribute 30% of Thailand's GDP by 2030, up from 10% at present.
The company believes Thailand has the potential to become the digital hub in Asean through the development of core sectors and collaboration among related parties.