Schneider Electric, a French energy management company, is expanding its education alliance to help train the next generation of workers to serve digital transformation and sustainability opportunities in Thailand.
The move is part of its goal to train 1 million young people and 10,000 entrepreneurs worldwide by the end of 2025.
"Schneider Foundation aims to contribute to a low-carbon society and promote equality to inspire the young generation and the community to move towards sustainable development," said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman of Schneider Electric and the Schneider Electric Foundation.
The foundation has expanded its educational partnership to include the Office of Vocational Education Commission and King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, in addition to its existing partnership with the Eastern Institute of Vocational Technology.
The alliance provides training to 55,000 vocational students in electrical studies nationwide during the period of cooperation, which ends in 2027.
The students have rigorous training comprising 180 hours or one semester of electrical and automation coursework.
Stephane Nuss, cluster president and chief executive for Thailand, Myanmar and Laos at Schneider Electric, said the company recently launched Innovation Hub Bangkok, one of more than 100 such hubs worldwide in strategic locations, such as Singapore and Indonesia.
The Bangkok hub combines innovative sustainability and digital solutions.
The hub showcases solutions for residential buildings, industrial plants, data centres, grid systems and various forms of infrastructure.
"We drive digital transformation with innovative, integrated solutions for both hardware and software as well as devices that can be connected to each other for use in monitoring and in-depth analysis," said Mr Nuss.
"This allows for increased efficiency and forecasting of maintenance, as well as reduced carbon emissions and greenhouse gases."
He said the future of industries involves technologies combining IT and operational technology, delivering sustainability and flexibility through automation on an open platform by using software-centric automation that helps increase work efficiency.
Mr Nuss said future data centres will be both large and small, supporting work through edge computing, assisting hotels, hospitals and medical facilities.