DEVELOPING human resources is the key to sustainable growth, said Siam Commercial Bank president and
That is why the bank set up an academy to brief its 25,000 staff on its new business strategy to enable the country’s move towards the digital economic era, he said. He said the academy would teach how to do business and also about the bank’s business strategy for sustainable long-term growth.
“We have to train our staff, who are the key to drive business growth for the long term,” Arthid said. “The academy is one of the tools to train our staff to drive business and achieve our business goals.”
Other companies have also established academies or institutes to train staff or prepare the younger generations to be their future employees.
PTT Group has already invested Bt10 billion in an endowment fund to support the long-term operations of the Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (Vistec), formally known as the Rayong Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Thailand’s first science and technology research-intensive university.
It is modelled after the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and has operated since 2015. Vistec sits on an industrial belt in the East that is inspired by the US Silicon Valley. Vistec is located on a 900 rai (144 hectare) land plot that is part of a 3,700-rai plot that PTT bought from its subsidiary IRPC at Wang Chan, Rayong.
It is located between the east coast – where most of the country’s petrochemical plants, oil refineries and automotive plants are located – and the upper eastern region where there are many industrial estates as well as automobile and electronics factories.
“We must create an excellence research university that is capable of producing top entrepreneurs and industrialists for the country,” former PTT Group CEO Pailin Chuchottaworn, who founded Vistec, said when the institute was launched.
Charoen Pokphand Group established Panyapiwat Institute of Management (PIM), Thailand’s first and largest corporate university. PIM was established in 2007 under CP ALL Plc, a subsidiary of the CP Group, with the objective of transferring the knowledge of the business community to students.
It also aims to fill the divide between conventional education and the demands of corporations. With the institute’s retail educational and research emphasis and a commitment to producing academically skilled and job-ready graduates, the main approach to teaching and learning at PIM is work-based.
Thailand Development Research Institute’s (TDRI) research director Somchai Jitsuchon said recently that human development in organisations and the country as a whole should be the priority in helping transform the Kingdom into a sustainable economy, and eventually turn it into a valued-based economy – or Thailand 4.0.
“Before moving to Thailand 4.0, people must be 4.0 first,” he said.
Examining the structure of the Thai population, people aged from 35 to 60 account for half of the labour force, yet a great many |of them are not well educated, he said.
This is a challenge for the country in moving towards Thailand 4.0, as people in this category rarely know about disruptive technology, he said, adding that the government has no clear policy for getting them to participate in the Thailand 4.0 process.
Another strategy that is essential for the younger generation, who represent 20-30 per cent of the labour force, is on-the-job training, the research director said.
Most current training is not adequate for dealing with modern businesses, he said.
He added that properly focused programmes were seen only in large companies, while small and medium-sized business paid less attention to the training of their employees because of a fear over the potential turnover of staff after they completed the courses.
