New Zealand help on language training
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully recently joined his Thai counterpart Surapong Towichukchaikul to congratulate Thai officials who have completed specialist Englishlanguage training in New Zealand.
Mr McCully met with some of the 40 officials who undertook the specialist “Advanced Oral Communication Course” in New Zealand since the programme was established last year. The Advanced Oral Communication Course is a collaboration between the Thai Devawongse Institute, part of the Thai Foreign Ministry, and New Zealand institutions Victoria University of Wellington and the Auckland University of Technology.
Participants include senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Education, as well as the Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary. They spoke of their positive experiences in New Zealand – while Mr McCully cited the programme as an excellent example of collaboration between Thailand and New Zealand.
He noted that English language training is a priority for the Thai government, and an area of strength for New Zealand education providers.
The Asean scholars programme is another example of how NZ supports Thailand on English language training. The programme involves four scholarships offered by New Zealand for Thai teachers to complete postgraduate study in New Zealand in 2013.
These initiatives are designed to contribute to Thailand’s priority of improving Englishlanguage proficiency in the leadup to the 2015 Asean Economic Community – a vision to transform Asean countries into a single market and production base.
