Thailand - Thais face challenges getting Asean jobs

Seven professions in the labour market will be freed up in 2015 by Asean nations under mutual recognition agreements (MRAs).

But it will not be easy for Thai workers in these jobs to gain accreditation, Assoc Prof Patcharawalai Wongboonsin, a researcher from Chulalongkorn University's College of Population Studies, told a seminar last week.

Accreditation by foreign countries requires top qualifications, and most Thais would find it really hard to reach the criteria in order to be recognised in Asean, Patcharawalai said.

She spoke at a seminar on Thai workers' qualifications for the Asean labour market, held as part of a Future of Thai Education symposium, at Impact Arena Muang Thong Thani.

The seven occupations she referred to are: medical practitioners, dental practitioners, nursing services, engineering services, architectural services, surveying qualifications, and accountancy services.

Thais' lack of foreign-language skills was an obvious major |obstacle, compared to people from Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Without accreditation by foreign countries, Thai engineers would lag behind rivals in Singapore and Malaysia in foreign recognition, she said, noting that Singapore had been accredited by many engineering technology leaders, including the US, UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Ireland, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Malaysia was trying for similar recognition.

"Now, less than 100 engineers across the region have been recognised as Asean chartered professional engineers because it's really tough and difficult to achieve the criteria," Patcharawalai added.

Only 3,712 engineers - just 2 per cent of the total 170,830 engineers in Thailand - have the necessary certificates, portfolios and eight years of continuous work experience. More newly graduated engineers who have just started their careers are likely to change to other fields.

The researcher said engineers who want to register as Asean chartered professionals had to apply to the Asean Chartered Professional Engineer Coordinating Committee. Important criteria include a bachelor's degree in engineering accredited by a professional agency in their own country or in countries that would hire them; having at least seven years' working experience; and having been in charge of important work for at least two years.

The criteria for Asean professional architects are also difficult to achieve - people must have worked in architecture for at least 10 years, half of which they must have held a professional licence; and been in charge of important architectural projects for at least two years.

The demands mean architects have to plan, design and coordi-nate with agencies in a public |building construction project. However, Thai architects' training is usually limited to design, so individuals here need to understand and be responsible for a complete project, or one that is made up |of various fields, according to Patcharawalai.

"With these tough criteria, |most Thai engineers and architects cannot compete with leading skilled workers in the region," she said.

Boonlert Theeratrakul, director of the labour market research division at the Department of Labour, said a survey found many Thai workers lacked most in English, IT and numerical skills.

"So, this makes it really hard for them to compete in Asean," he said.

Patcharawalai also said Thai professionals had more weak points than strong ones. Most workers in Thailand were low-skilled, although Thais were easy to train and could learn their jobs quickly. They were polite and not aggressive. However, Thailand had fewer individuals at medium and high skilled and professional levels. Many workers lacked training, preparation, ethics, discipline and punctuality.

Therefore, she urged Thai authorities to prepare Thai students in those professions for the future.

In 2015, the number of workers in the Asean region is expected to increase from 250 million to 300 million. Higher quality Chinese and Indian workers were likely to come to the Asean region as well, said Chirapun Gullaprawit, director of social development strategy and the planning office at the National Economic and Social Development Board.

"Thailand should prepare its workforce with different levels of ability to gain higher quality so |that they can compete in the Asean labour market," Chirapun urged.

He said the education system in Thailand should produce workers for the 21st century with discipline, synthesising, creative, respectful and ethical minds, aside from knowledge in their fields and professional skills.

Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

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USA - Career Plans Are Dangerous

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Despite the tendency to slip in some of the questions Google asks when interviewing people (such as, what is the next number in this sequence: 10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66..?), this remains a fairly popular question when you are looking a job.

It's usually an extremely silly question (although you are not supposed to say that in your response.) You know most of the reasons why the question is so bad: It begs a lame joke ("When, Ms. Manager, do you think you will be moving on?"), or brown-nosing ("I hope to be well along my career within this fine company") and it assumes that you are going to indeed like working at "this fine company" and that they are going to enjoy having you.

But there is a bigger reason the question is awful. It assumes the world is going to remain constant between now and then. That is never a good idea.

If in 2007 you asked people who worked in the mortgage banking or real estate business, or in journalism or at Blockbuster what they were expecting to be doing in 2012, we guarantee you their answer isn't what they are doing now.

If you don't know what the world is going to look like five years from now, there is not a lot of sense trying to predict potential external factors planning your career based on that dubious prediction. ("Let's see, it's 2007 and I am associate store manager of a Blockbuster store. The world is always going to want to make it a "Blockbuster" night, so I am going to plan on being a regional manager. Yes, two promotions in five years. That feels right. So, that's my plan.")

So are we saying career planning is waste of time? Yes, much of the time it is, at least as it is typically taught.

Let's deal with the exceptions first. If you want to work in an industry where the industry is fairly predictable — say nursing — then plan away. The courses you need to take to gain an entry position are well known and so is the career path and the things you need to do to advance. So, simply figure out where you actually want to be in five years, and work backwards, just like all the career planning manuals tell you.

But increasingly, the world is not this predictable. And it is in settings of high uncertainty where traditional career planning is both a waste of time and potentially dangerous. A career plan can lead you into a false sense of confidence, where you fail to see opportunities as they arise and miss taking smart steps you otherwise hadn't planned for.

You need an alternative. Let us suggest one.

Instead of formulating the logically perfect ending job and the optimal path to get there, begin with a direction ,based on a real desire, and complement that with a strategy to discover and create opportunities consistent with that desire.

In an uncertain world you can't even come close to saying what a specific job might be, but you can say what's valuable and important to you. Who are you? What matters to you? Is it working in a specific industry? Managing people or not? The answers will point you in productive directions.

Having considered that, what are your means at hand, your talents and skills, who you know, what you know? And how do you get started on concrete actions that are consistent with these desires? Some of those will take the form of looking for a job, but others might simultaneously entail starting something of your own. As you act, different opportunities will present themselves.

So, the process looks like this:

-       Determine your desire

-       Take a step toward it

-       Incorporate what you learn from taking that step

-       Take another step

-       Learn from that one

-       Repeat until you have a job, your own business, or have achieved your goal

It's not career planning. It's acting your way into a future you want.

(Oh, by the way. Still curious about that Google question? The numbers in the list are in ascending order, based on the number of letters in the spelled-out numbers, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out. "A correct response will have nine letters: 96, for instance. A cleverer answer is "one googol." That's the huge number that can be written as a "1" with a hundred zeros after it. Google, the company's name, was originally a misspelling of 'googol.")

LEONARD A. SCHLESINGER, CHARLES F. KIEFER, AND PAUL B. BROWN

HBR Blog Network

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Vietnam - Passion for work

Dear readers,

We meet again on the first week of March.

After a series on holiday rip-offs over the last two weeks, we continued to receive more suggestions on how to avoid hassles during vacation. John Russack, an American who has lived in Vietnam for three years, shared some tips on how to enjoy a pleasant journey. They include mingling with locals, doing advanced research before a trip, and saying no to vendors’ offers.

“Living or traveling in Vietnam is a unique experience duplicated nowhere else on earth. Armed with some common sense and a little bit of research, we are now ready to successfully navigate all the joys this colorful country has to offer,” concluded John.

One of the joys that Vietnam has to offer to visitors is the novelty and variety of its cuisine. However, it is not the promotion of rustic Vietnamese dishes to foreigners but how to make them more eye-catching and flavorful to the foreigners’ taste buds is a concern of several chefs.

One of them is Duong Huy Khai, who aspires to give a twist to Vietnamese original dishes, elevating them to a higher level as he introduces them to foreign diners. The chef gives an example of Pho, or noodle soup, which initially had no herbs or vegetables. However, when introduced to the south, sprouts, coriander, and basil were added, bringing color to a bowl of pho. It later became one of Vietnam’s most famous dishes to the world.

Khai is pursuing his dream of promoting his homeland’s cuisine.

“I want foreigners to see Vietnamese cuisine as high class and erase their concept of the country: that there is only war, flooding and poverty,” shared Khai.

Another person who is also passionate about his career is Dr Mark L. Siefring, who is working at Stamford Skin and Medical Centre. On the occasion of National Physician’s Day on Monday, we had the American doctor talk about his job, where he sees himself as a medical detective who tries to find clues about the illness from his patient’s lifestyle, on the basis of which he will give consultations.

Mark learned to put aside his American mindset and get used to Vietnamese culture when it comes to communicating with patients and their families on serious diseases.Besides, he has had tremendously positive experiences with Vietnamese patients, such as receiving fruits and sweets from them as an expression of gratitude, having patients who shake his hand with two hands or hug him and invite him to their hometown.

“I believe the future is bright for the advancement of Health Care Services in Vietnam when good nurses and good doctors are trained and educated well, and become motivated and caring health care providers. I believe that if we all work hand in hand we will achieve better and better patient care in Vietnam,” Mark expressed his expectation for the future.

In another story, Thanh Son, an official who has worked for 20 years in a company, found his passion for the job rekindled after attending a meeting where the usual monologue by a speaker was replaced by a chance to talk about his problems at work to a deputy minister.

“That day, I was sad because I hadn’t had a chance to read the news or surf the net during the meeting. However, I also felt an indescribable joy, a hope that after 20 year working in a company: my small idea was heard and listened to by a big boss,” he shared

The first half of the year is always packed with special occasions and celebrations in Vietnam. Next week, we have the Women’s Day to honor all beautiful females in the world. What surprises do you have in store for the special women in your life? All writings and images about your beloved mother, caring sister or lovely girlfriend can be sent to expat@tuoitre.com.vn

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

TUOITRENEWS

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YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.