On 2 March 2022, NXPO Vice President Dr. Kanchana Wanichkorn participated in “EdCompass: Empowered Education” seminar organized by the Office of the Education Council. She reflected on the role of higher education, science, research and innovation in the development of education in Thailand.  

Dr. Kanchana pointed out the need for an education system to evolve to meet the requirements set by social and technological trends such as multi-stage life and technology disruption. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has predicted that by 2025, as many as 85 million jobs will be displaced by machines. Up to 97 million new jobs will be created in the areas such as digital technology, data science and automation. The pandemic has also accelerated the digital transformation. It is therefore vital for the education system to develop workforce to have skills and competencies meeting the ever-changing demand of labor market. 

The merge of higher education and science into a new ministry has prompted a close examination of higher education, science, research and innovation system. A system research was performed to design an ecosystem enabling lifelong learning, good governance and competency-based education. Education programs must be designed to fit the requirements of industry and prepare Thai people to have a global perspective. Education needs to be more accessible. Support systems such as the national credit bank and demand-side funding will help enrich the ecosystem. 

NXPO has supported Rajabhat University to develop the Strategic Action Plan 2023-2027 under the policy acceleration program in which tools such as foresight and systems research were employed in the policy development process that involves 38 universities in the Rajabhat University system. Rajabhat University Strategic Action Plan 2023-2027 sets the goals and strategies to improve education quality of small-size schools, to design a model school for performance-based learning, and to promote lifelong learning for people in the community. In addition, Rajamangala University of Technology (RMUT) Thanyaburi and the Office of the Education Council have established a digital credit bank system to help reduce education inequality, link professional qualification to academic qualification, and support lifelong learning. The credit bank system will serve all 9 universities under the RMUT system. 

The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation has set up a Skill Mapping Thailand website (https://skill-mapping.ops.go.th/) providing information on skill requirements in four sectors: Smart Farmer, Smart SME, Health Science, and Tourism. Furthermore, NXPO has created a Talent Thailand Platform (https://talent.nxpo.or.th) containing a database of Thai and international experts with function to perform data analysis and data distribution, and published results of survey on high-skilled workforce demands in the strategic industries in the next five years (2020-2024). A higher education sandbox has recently been introduced to support the development of education innovation. 

For underprivileged children, career-based education is a promising solution to improve access to quality education. In this direction, RMUT has introduced “Premium Course” model to provide vocational training. 

At the end of the seminar, the Office of the Education Council unveiled mobile application “OEC Knowledge” providing information and new trends on education. The application is available for free download on App Store and Google Play Store.