AN initiative to improve in-company staff-training standards in Asean that was launched by several countries in the region, including Thailand, with the assistance of the German International Cooperation's (GIZ) is a step closer to being finalised following a Bangkok workshop.
The initiative also involves Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The workshop last week featured panellists from the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology and GIZ as well as representatives from the public and private sectors of the six Asean countries.
The aim is to tackle the region's intensifying skilled-labour shortage by creating real public-private partners, introducing efficient measures and creating a universal standard for training.
The standard includes recruitment criteria, competency and tasks which form a frame curriculum of a company.
The move takes into account private sector demand for skilled labour and hopes to pave the way for a more coordinated system of learning ventures between firms and vocational schools.
The six countries agreed to adopt the German model of a dual vocational education system, bearing in mind real market demand in each country. The GIZ, with Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, is helping the countries finance the project and to help them establish the training standard.
The project was launched in 2013 and is due for completion at the end of this year.
Four workshops on the initiative were held between September last year and February.
They aimed to pool input and resources from the public and private sectors to create a comprehensive set of training standards.
A group of 60 experts from the six Asean countries gathered to discuss the project's framework.
Also at the workshops were experts from the GIZ and the Karlsruher Institute of Technology.
It resulted in an agreement being reached on four training modules.
These modules focus on providing trainers with analysing skills while allowing them to define learning requirements and giving them the ability to plan, prepare and conduct training.
The objective of the modules is also to provide trainers with the skills to assess and develop future plans for training development.
Somwang Boonrakchareon, deputy executive director of the Thai German Institute for Technical Training, said the curriculum of each module would be discussed at workshops in March, June and August. These modules have already attracted the interests of the private and public sector here, including the Vocational Education Commission, the German-Thai Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Thai Industries and the Department of Skills Development at the Ministry of Labour.