06 INTERVIEW
Vocational education development for Thailand 4.0 Wichit Tangwongchuensuk, Qualification and Training Manager of BMW Group Thailand Vocational education plays a vital role in the realisation of Thailand 4.0 as it is always linked with the industrial development. In this issue of UPDATE Mr. Wichit Tangwongchuensuk, Qualification and Training Manager, BMW Group Thailand, shares with the Chamber details of BMW’s active participation in enhancing the skills of vocational students in order to foster human resource development and economic growth in Thailand. Mr. WIchit is responsible for supervising the skill and knowledge training of people at BMW dealerships and the BMW network throughout Thailand. He also collaborates with colleagues in this region, including Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and Australia for human resources development, especially on how to manage and improve each function of the BMW dealer network. He has been working with BMW since 2012.
and good teachers, then the outcome will definitely be good.
Could you please share with us a brief overview of vocational education and vocational students’ quality in Thailand? The overall quality of Thai students regarding knowledge is quite impressive, but the knowledge depends on the mentors and the curricula. If a school has a good curriculum
UPDATE 2/2022
Based on my experience, private technical colleges outperform government-owned institutions in terms of student quality. Currently, we have four technical colleges in our BMW Service Apprentice Programme. Three of them are private, while one is government-owned. The student quality of private colleges is above average while the government-owned ones are still below average.
How has BMW developed the human resources in mechatronics since the company started its operation in Thailand? When did it feel that there was a need for dual vocational education? In 1998, the year that BMW AG established the BMW Group Thailand and BMW Manufacturing Thailand in Rayong, there was not much progress during the millennium year 1999-2000. BMW Group is a relatively new company in Thailand, operating only for about 20 years. However, BMW vehicles
