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Published on March 12, 2008

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), one of Thailand's largest business organisations, is attempting to bridge the human-resource gap that companies in the country are facing.

The FTI's Human Capacity Building Institute (HCBI) has a clear mission: Supporting a link between the real business world and the academic world.

HCBI chairman Dr Nipon Surapongrukchareon said he set up the association six years ago because of his strong faith in the value of people in every organisation and the nation as a whole.

"It has been widely recognised that people are the most valuable asset of an organisation. Singapore, which was born only 42 years ago, is a small country, it's smaller than Phuket, has no more than 5 million people and no natural resources, not even enough fresh water. But the Singapore model has succeed in equipping its citizens with the 'weapon of wisdom'," he said.

As a result, even though Singapore's population is ten times lesser than Thailand's, leading educational institutes and high-tech investors have a presence in the island state. The salary of Singapore's prime minister is higher than that of the United States president. The salaries of Singaporean officers are higher than company executives. This is because the country has a clear policy of giving importance to human resources, he said.

"And so they have high-performance people," Nipon said.

Thailand, he said, should follow the example of Singapore and give importance to human resources.

Thai educational institutes have not been able to produce workers with qualifications that meet the requirements of the business sector and this is a waste, he said. To solve this problem, FTI and HCBI have approached institutes and suggested that they adjust their curricula.

The FTI's petrochemical group, for example, has given a grant of Bt30 million to Map Ta Phut Technical College, helping it design a new curriculum, sending executives to teach students, opening their factories to give students the chance to study with actual equipment, Nipon said.

"To attract students to vocational degrees, the industry has promised a starting salary of Bt18,000 for graduates of the technical college.

"We have designed these 'high doses' to make the programme attractive. In the past, most secondary school students would go to Rajabhat [teachers' colleges] and few would opt for vocational schools," he said.

Most companies pay about Bt10,000 to university graduates.

The petrochemical industry has agreed to pay Bt18,000 to students who graduate at the higher vocational level from the Map Ta Phut Technical College, matching the salary of an engineer because it

wants to change the trend, Nipon said.

"Thai companies have been paying their staff according to the level of education. We want to change it, based on the academic field and competencies. We want to set vocational qualifications," he said.

Despite economic and political problems, petrochemical and automobile industries are operating at full capacity. There is a shortage of technicians especially in the Eastern Seaboard which houses a major portion of both industries, he said.

Realising the titanic size of Thailand's HR problem, FTI's strategy is to initiate pilot projects that will inspire other educational institutes to follow.

The organisation is inviting representatives from all universities to attend a conference that will describe the best practices and pilot programmes it has initiated.

The Nation