Taiwan Vocational Education Delegation Makes a Groundbreaking Official Visit to Thailand
Dr. Chaipreuk Sereerak, Secretary General of the Office of the Vocational Education Commission at the Ministry of Education in Thailand invited a delegation of experts from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan to visit vocational colleges in Thailand from June 1 to June 6. The purpose of their visit was to provide assistance evaluating the current issues and challenges facing Thailand’s vocational education sector, and to make suggestions about how to meet these challenges, and improve the quality of vocational education.
Taiwan enjoys international acknowledgment for excellent quality education and the capacity of its vocational education to train the highly skilled people to meet the needs of industry over an enormous range of fields. Taiwan’s economic development over recent decades is clear evidence of this. In contrast, vocational education in Thailand has lagged behind the higher education sector for decades, as a result of a shortage of proper management, qualified teachers, and motivated students. Driven by the challenges accompanying trying to upgrade their country’s economy, educational institutions in Thailand are keen to learn what has made education in Taiwan so successful, particularly vocational education. They want to use Taiwan as a model and create a dynamic better quality education system of their own that will inspire the educators and students alike.
The visiting delegation—of presidents of five colleges and universities in Taiwan, and an educational official, led by Bang-An Rau, the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Education’s Department of Vocational Education—exchanged ideas with Secretary General Dr. Chaipreuk Sereerak about increasing the extent and effectiveness of collaboration on vocational education between Taiwan and Thailand. They agreed that a platform should be established as a mechanism for collaboration to best target needs and to encourage more exchange programs between colleges from both sides. Dr. Chaipreuk agreed to host the first Taiwan-Thailand Vocational Education Forum in Thailand in November and everyone confidently expects that more exchange programs for both teachers and students in the vocational education sector will soon follow.
The delegation visited six colleges, all considered to have great potential for making a significant contribution to national development: Songkhla Vocational College, Songkhla College of Agriculture and Technology, Hat Yai Technical College, Kanchanaburi Vocational College, College of Agriculture and Technology, and Kanchanaburi Technical College. Good strategic planning of the development of colleges is a key requirement, and key elements of this are better teaching through teacher training; establishing a sound management system; and teaching students how to become responsible learners.