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ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Japan-backs-Thai-HR-goals-30282233.html

WATCHIRANONT THONGTEP
THE NATION March 23, 2016 1:00 am

Suthichai Yoon (middle), chief advisor to editorial and management board of Nation Multimedia Group yesterday moderated the 1st Round Table Conference of Human Resources Development to identify what real needs are in the market and possible solutions to p

TO ESTABLISH Thailand as Asean’s human-resource development hub, Japan is joining forces with the Thai public and private sectors along with educational institutes to strengthen the |capacity to provide quality STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, a forum was told.

However, leaders in the industrial sector, educational institutes and top companies suggested that the Thai education sector and policymakers should establish a deeper collaboration in human-resource development to respond to real demand in the market, as the major industries in the Kingdom still lack quality labour forces.

Referring to research on education for industrial human-resource development, Shuichi Ikeda, chief representative from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Thailand Office, said technical schools did not satisfy the needs of industry in either quantity or quality. In addition, capacities of technical and vocational schools need to be strengthened to achieve the expected educational outputs for upgrading industry.

To deal with those problems, Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, deputy minister of education, said the government needed to invest in human capital, creating a market-friendly environment with strong support from the financial sector.

“I would like to suggest that liberalisation of universities is crucial as well as promoting free and fair competition for overseas educational institutions to improve quality. In line with this, we need to raise universities’ involvement in mega-projects and the private sectors’ projects,” Teerakiat said.

Bandhit Rojarayanont, president of the Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology, said that from his experience of 43 years in human-resource development involving about 3,000 to 4,000 companies, 20 per cent of those firms said they needed engineers equipped with communication skills in English and Japanese along with “soft skills”. “English communication skills are a must while Japanese skills are surplus,” Bandhit said, adding that soft skills would be able to help them get along with corporate culture.

Shiro Sadoshima, Japan’s ambassador to Thailand, said yesterday that Thailand and Japan had a win-win relationship. To avoid the middle-income trap and change the current labour-intensive structure to a knowledge-intensive structure, it was crucial that industries should have sufficient capabilities to create their own original and innovative products. Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand, said his company was continuing to support a programme to send Thai engineers to be trained in Japan.

He said the company wanted to see Thais qualified to be chief engineers in Toyota’s research and development facilities here.

“We hope to create quality Thai chief engineers within 10 years,” he said.

MORE employees are likely to explore new career avenues that could lead to a better job, more money and a better life, presenting a huge opportunity for job recruitment firms, says Seek Asia.

“We are witnessing a potential growth in passive candidates, which refers to those who are still being employed but keep their eyes open for new opportunity,” said Jake Andrew, chief product officer of Seek Asia – the parent company of leading online employment marketplaces JobsDB.com and JobStreet.com.

This emerging trend was found in a job candidate survey Seek Asia conducted in November. In the survey, which was based on people who changed jobs, 58 per cent were active candidates and 42 per cent were passive candidates.

The study found that passive candidates are now more tuned into market conditions and are looking for opportunities.

For companies to tap his market, Andrew said that JobsDB would soon introduce new services – job alert relevance, advanced talent searches and company reviews – to increase the chances of attracting a candidate through a job. JobsDB launched the services in key markets including Singapore and Malaysia last year.

On top of this new service, Seek Asia is putting more emphasis on engagement via its JobsDB mobile application. The company said that the platform dominated Internet access in the Kingdom in line with the increasing penetration of smartphone users. The number of smartphone users is expected to hit 24.8 million in the next three years.

“To date, 60 per cent of the total members [in the market] are active via the JobsDB mobile application,” said Noppawan Chulakanista, managing director of JobsDB Recruitment (Thailand).

Andrew said that figure was five to 10 per cent four years ago when Seek Asia acquired its stake in JobsDB.

To encourage passive candidates to find new jobs, Seek Asia is also investing more in public relations and marketing campaigns. This is line with it expanding its markets, particularly in key cities outside Bangkok.

Seek Asia chief marketing officer Geraldine Wong said that the company had increased its marketing budget for Thailand by 30 per cent in the first four months of this financial year.

“Digital ad campaigns and roadshows in key provinces are a key strategy this year,” Wong said, adding that employees should keep their resumes up to date in preparation for new opportunities.