U expo wraps up on high note

The threeday event attracted huge crowds of students, parents and teachers with a wide variety of interesting and fun activities such as a mini concert and a cheerleading show as well as practical seminars.
The useful seminars, which saw many students taking advanced bookings for seats, included those offering guidelines for students in preparing for their favourite highereducational institution and assessments to determine whether certain careers such as pilot, doctor and engineering matched them.
Samphan Phanphruk, director of the National Institute of Educational Testing Service, went on stage to explain indepth about the Ordinary National Educational Test, General Aptitude Test and Professional Aptitude Tests, which factor in university admissions.
Education Minister Suchart Tadathamrongvej presided over the launch of the U Expo 2012 at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre last Friday.
He asked for space for a booth to promote the government’s One District One Scholarship project, which will start accepting applications from qualified students next month. Key criteria are good behaviour and a grade point average of at least 3.00.
Pornsilp Patcharinrattanakul of the Thai Chamber of Commerce told students attending a seminar that they should equip themselves with foreign language skills to boost their competitiveness ahead of the Asean Economic Community taking full shape by 2015.
Visanu Vongsinsirikul of Dhurakij Pundit University said the better Thais were at other languages used in the Asean region, the better for them,
“Nearly 400 million people in the region use the Indonesian language. So, it will behoove Thais to know more than just English,” he said.
Thais also need to learn more about the cultures of other Asean countries, he added.
The threeday expo gave students a venue to seek information directly from universities including Nation University, counselling from lecturers and tips from educational experts.
Visitors were also treated to zones selling IT products, textbooks and study materials.