Dr. Suvit Maesincee, Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) revealed that MHESI has been tasked to design a mechanism for developing highly-skilled workforce with the private sector and the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand (EEC). In doing so, the ministry has invited over 100 higher education institutes throughout the country to develop non-degree programs for reskilling and upskilling workforce of the future. The non-degree programs are developed based on the study result on Future Skill Set for S-curve Industries conducted by NXPO. The Future Skill Set for S-curve Industries identified skill set – hard skills and soft skills – required by 12 industries, encompassing biofuels & biochemicals, digital industry, aviation & logistics, wellness & medical devices, intelligent electronics, high-quality and wellness tourism, agriculture & biotechnology, food processing, defense industry, robotics, embedded technology and talent development industry. 

Minister Suvit further added that MHESI will be responsible for not only 3-4 million university students, but also 38 million workers, including 11 million senior workers who are in need of reskilling and upskilling to fit in the industries constantly facing disruption by advanced technologies.  Non-degree programs will play a major role in training current workforce to meet the future industry demand. 

According to the survey conducted by EEC, industries located in EEC will need 475,000 talents to fulfill the positions in firms in the next five years, consisting of 253,000 vocational-level graduates, 212,000 bachelor’s degree holders, and 8,600 graduate degree holders. 

Over 500 non-degree programs will be unveiled at the Future Career Expo 2020 scheduled in late March 2020. A 10-million-THB Reskill-Upskill Coupon Program will be launched at the fair, providing the fee subsidy to any interested individual.