Preparing workers for the Uber age

Preparing workers for the Uber age

Surakiart Sathirathai is chairman of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council (APRC), a former deputy prime minister and a former minister of foreign affairs of Thailand. This is an abridged version of his speech at a conference titled Caught in a Trap? Asia and the Pacific's Middle-income Countries at a Crossroads held last Wednesday in Bangkok. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)
Surakiart Sathirathai is chairman of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council (APRC), a former deputy prime minister and a former minister of foreign affairs of Thailand. This is an abridged version of his speech at a conference titled Caught in a Trap? Asia and the Pacific's Middle-income Countries at a Crossroads held last Wednesday in Bangkok. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)

Would you have believed it if only a few years ago, you were told that you could own the largest and international taxi company without a single car of your own? Today we have Uber. You would never have thought that a business model like those of Uber, Airbnb, Skype and Alibaba would have existed and successfully made the owners billionaires.

Automation, robotisation and digitalisation brought with them a new economy, a new productivity and a new technology that might not have been imagined only a few years ago. Each of us from Asia-Pacific countries may have to revisit with urgency our educational systems and ask whether our education is appropriately preparing our children, our future human resource for this new economy, new productivity and new technology to take us out of the middle-income trap and grow and sustain beyond it.

Admittedly, Thai education has not yet sufficiently produced a highly skilled workforce to move the country beyond the middle-income trap.

Big problems remain in vocational, technical and tertiary education.

For far too long, vocational and technical education in this country has been regarded as education for drop-outs, hooligans, and for those in the lower and poorer class of society.

Vocational students have been looked down as less brainy students who are incapable of achieving a university degree.

For decades, a university degree has meant a licence for better jobs as well as social recognition. A vocational and technical diploma, on the other hand, may imply that its holder is just a second-class citizen.

The civil servant salary scale clearly reiterates this predicament by fixing the salary for university degree-holders higher, without due regard to skill.

This government salary scale is also replicated in many parts of the private sector.

As a consequence, a vocational and technical diploma is never enough to get anyone a reasonably well-paid job. Kids as well as parents feel obliged to pursue a university degree even if there is no need.

Thailand ends up with an abundant number of university degree-holders employed in jobs which only require vocational and technical college skills.

Vocational and technical student enrolments in technical colleges have steadily declined.

This trend was further emphasised when the Ministry of Education offered vocational and technical students the chance to continue with university degrees in vocational and technical colleges, adding a few more years to their education to do a job which in fact they could have done even without a degree.

But at present do we need to produce more university degree graduates or a more skilled workforce? The country, consequently, has ended up with a shortage of skilled labour which has become one of the most pressing constraints on growth.

More importantly, the country also lacks the competitive edge to adopt new technologies and product innovation. It falls far behind in research and development (R&D). University research does not produce enough innovations which could be commercially viable. The knowledge-based economy that was so popularly touted several years ago did not bear the desired fruit since the education system, especially higher education, lacks the genuine and effective competence to deliver.

The tertiary education sector has produced too many social science, business and marketing graduates but too few engineers and scientists.

It has produced too many graduates who can copy but too few who can innovate. This means that our education never gives priority to knowledge-based education.

Until recently, it has not produced enough graduates with a strong foundation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And it has produced too few graduates with English proficiency.

This year almost 200,000 graduates remain unemployed while Thailand still lacks a workforce. Clearly the workforce we produce does not match demand under global megatrends.

So many of those who get employed find themselves in jobs that do not require a university qualification.

As the fourth industrial revolution arrives and is regarded as the means to rid our nation of the middle-income trap, it is more than imperative that we design our future workforce and an education system that would produce such an outcome.

We need innovation but we lack knowledge as an important foundation for innovation. Knowledge comes from R&D but we lack sufficient funding for R&D. We need to produce technology users but instead we produce university graduates who are not needed in the market.

Vocational, technical and agricultural colleges must no longer be viewed as education for the drop-outs and the hooligans. It must become a place where most kids feel proud to take part and graduate with acceptable skills and a satisfactorily well-paid job.

These colleges must form the national backbone to produce a new skilled workforce that responds to industry and private sector demands.

Technological and applied science universities must produce hands-on graduates with knowledge and skills to work, supervise and innovate in any workplace. We may need to produce the human resource with skills to use and apply technology rather than inventing technology.

Agriculture colleges and universities must teach agricultural technology to improve productivity and a modern agricultural sector.

All must be accustomed with IOT (internet of things) technology and have adequate English proficiency. Universities must change and adopt new approaches to teaching and training to be truly responsive to the labour market and technological advances.

While the number of university entrants will continue to decline due to the demographic changes, the universities' survival depends on the ability to produce graduates that truly meet changing demand and are acceptable to the market.

Surakiart Sathirathai

Former deputy prime minister

Dr Surakiart Sathirathai, chairman of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council, former deputy prime minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs at the international conference of the Thai Royal Armed Forces on Aug 7 to mark the 48th anniversary of Asean.

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