Natapon Nimmanphatcharin, deputy director of Thailand’s National Food Institute (NFI), pointed out that at least five key industries in the country had manpower problems.

He was speaking at the international forum “Moving Across the Middle Income Trap Border through Human Capacity Building” at Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna in Chiang Mai.

Ramhari Lamichhane, director-general of the Philippines’ Colombo Plan Staff College, said issues with social and entrepreneurial skills were among the challenges in delivering skilled workforce development in Asean.

The Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna organised the event to celebrate its 12th years as a university. Though founded about four decades ago, it was initially a college.

“We believe in human capacity building because human resources are the driving force for the country’s industrial sector and economy. We believe quality human resources will improve quality of life and finally bring Thailand out of the middle-income trap,” the university’s president Dr Namyut Songthanapitak said.

Thailand has been a middle-income country for decades, raising concerns among various sectors that if all parties involved do not take a new approach now, the country will not become a rich state.

The government is promoting the Thailand 4.0 concept, which calls for an innovation-driven economy. With innovations, it is hoped Thailand would escape the middle-income zone and soar higher.

Assoc Prof Dr Thiti Bovornratanaraks, a policy fellow at the National Science Technology and Innovation Policy Office, believed it would be a good idea to integrate work with learning.

At the international forum, his speech focused on the science, technology and innovation (STI) work-integrated learning programme.

“Work-integrated Learning [WiL] can give the quality of human resources that employers want,” Thiti said.

Learning programmes

He added that such an initiative was also good to students as by the time they graduated, they would have better skills and would be able to move up career paths with higher salary.

According to Thiti, government agencies and companies including Michelin and Central Pattana have engaged the STI WiL learning programmes.

Thiti, however, hopes that more firms join this bandwagon.

Wichien Cherdchutrakuntong, a vice chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) Chiang Mai chapter, said demand and supply did not match when it came to human resources in Thailand.

“Overall, educational institutes produce graduates they want but the country’s industrial sector needs something different,” he said.

He believed FTI had tried to solve problems by developing a curriculum with many universities and improving faculty-staff skills.

Wichien added that FTI had also worked hard on research but he believed that more needed to be done.

“Most of our research does not have real commercial value yet,” he said.

Despite the gloomy situation, hope has sprung in Chiang Mai. In this northern province, the Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, with a contribution from Prof Kiyoshi Yoshikawa, has implemented a project to improve the quality of life among Thai farmers. This initiative involves the application of useful findings from Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna research.

“For example, based on our research, we can create nano bubble generators that help keep fish fresh longer,” Yoshikawa said at the forum in his capacity as the university’s research advisor.

This Japanese academic pointed out that even though Thais are relatively happy compared with the rest of the world, there was room for improvement.

According to the World Happiness Report 2016, Thailand ranked 33rd.

The laid-back lifestyle among Thai people, particularly farmers, is visible, and the clear problem is that Thailand’s agricultural productivity is inferior to other nations.

Yoshikawa emphasised the need to use technology to empower farmers on this front.

“It is possible to make Thais even happier and comfortable by introducing advanced technologies,” Yoshikawa said.