HUMAN RESOURCES

Joining the ranks of the unemployable?

Sriwipa Siripunyawit

The ability to use computers has become a standard requirement in the job market today.

The vast majority of Thai students still graduate unprepared for the exacting demands of the modern job market, education reform advocates and regional recruiting agencies say, adding that if this situation is not corrected, Thailand's competitive advantage will be lost to countries with more enlightened educational systems.

According to Vincent Swift, managing director of the executive search firm The Wright Company, in recent years the overall job market in Thailand has been very buoyant, reflecting the country's economic growth.

Despite global concern about interest rates, oil prices and terrorism, and Thailand's local versions of the same, the mood is still optimistic.

Companies are gearing up for expansion and either upgrading existing management teams or adding new talents. An increasing number of companies are more aggressively seeking higher-quality staff and, of course, rewarding them with fatter pay packets.

From Mr Swift's viewpoint, these days there are more and more bright, well-educated Thais coming up through the ranks of middle management, but not enough to keep up with the increased demand.

"If the economy in a developing country is running hot, say anything above 5%, then successful companies will be looking for more managers than the market can deliver," he said, adding there is a looming shortage that could spark an all-out war for top talent.

Mr Swift, who has worked in Asia for more than 20 years, has noticed significant improvement at the high end of the Thai education system, particularly at the post-graduate level and in business-related degrees.

Vocational schools plan to produce more skilled workers to serve rising demand that comes with economic growth.

However, he continued, the vast majority of Thai students continue to graduate from post-secondary studies without having been taught how to question, analyse and develop a structured response to a problem. This deficiency reduces their effectiveness in business and, more broadly, as contributors to society as a whole.

Consequently, the country loses competitive advantage to those countries with more effective education systems. "Especially where the emphasis is on how to use information, rather than just stuffing information into a student's head," he said.

In the three years that the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been in power, the administration has yet to make significant changes or have an impact on the labour market, other than presiding over a general economic recovery.

"I'm not aware significant progress has been made in reforming the education system, and certainly there seems to have been a disturbing number of scandals linked to education," he said.

Thus, the challenge for the government is to create a level playing field for Thai students where they can develop the intellectual abilities required to deal with the accelerating rate of change.

"I would hope that the politicians understand that a well-educated labour force is of critical strategic importance for this country, and that currently education is a strategic weakness relative to virtually all of Thailand's regional neighbours.

"To rectify the situation before it reaches crisis proportions, it is absolutely essential that the politicians put the national interest first, ahead of their own agendas, and get on with upgrading an education system that is way below what each Thai person deserves and is failing to deliver the human resources that this country needs," he said.

Tidarat Kanchanawat, the general manager at Adecco Consulting Ltd, agreed graduates of Thai schools still lack a number of essential qualifications that leave them unable to fill the demands made on them by the real working world. One significant limitation is their weakness in foreign languages, especially English.

"Actually, there is plenty of supply in the market but the truly qualified ones are always scarce," said Mrs Tidarat.

At the country's largest recruitment agency, she finds that most of her clients have lately begun requiring proficiency in another language other than English. Most now require candidates to be fluent in a third language such as Japanese and Chinese, she said, adding that trilingual candidates are very hard to find.

She agreed that reforms must be undertaken from the ground up, with the whole education system and curriculum restructured to address more practical needs rather than just the time-worn theoretical approach.

In the past, she continued, calls for reform were never really taken seriously, or translated into genuine action.

And in the rare cases where progress might have been made, a change in government or policy headed it off.

"It's not easy to make reforms happen here as there is often a lack of continuity," she noted.

An easier route, she suggested, would be to re-engineer the undergraduate education level, before even attempting to attack the problem at its root.

"This could be used as a contingency plan to urgently develop qualified graduates to fill the gaps in the market at the moment."