The Office of the Vocational Education Commission (Ovec) is cooperating with the Chinese embassy
in Thailand to establish a ThaiChinese Institute of Technology.
The move is an effort to increase the number of skilled labourers as Thailand prepares for a surge in
rail route development.
Ovec secretarygeneral Chaipreuk Sereerak said training courses in the new vocational institute will
mainly focus on highspeed railway systems.
At present, Thailand does not have enough qualified people to respond to demands in the market.
It is expected that at least 3,500 skilled workers will be needed in the transport sector by next year, he
added.
"The Chinese are now one of the world's principal railway specialists as it has a wealth of experience
in building and operating railway systems, so we would benefit from learning from their model and
knowhow," Mr Chaipreuk said.
Mr Chaipreuk said Ovec will conclude the curriculum, which will be used in the ThaiChinese
Institute of Technology by this December, as the first phase of the highspeed train project is expected
to start soon.
"We cannot say yet whether the school will teach in a monolingual system or in a bilingual system,
but in my opinion it should be bilingual because Thailand may need to absorb a lot of Chinese
technology in the future," he said.
Thailand and China have signed a deal to jointly develop a dualtrack railway that will put Bangkok
on a route to southern China.
Thai and Chinese authorities, who are jointly pushing the project, earlier set the end of this year as the
start date, but issues over route design and funding delayed the project. Both sides have rescheduled
the start of construction to May next year.
The 873km railway track, which will be built on 1.435m standard gauge, is to run from Bangkok to
Map Ta Phut in Rayong, and the other will run to Nakhon Ratchasima and Nong Khai, the far
northeastern province bordering Laos.
Apart from creating the new vocational school, Ovec also wants to send hundreds of Thai vocational
students and teachers on short training courses focusing on rail operations and maintenance, so they
can keep pace with new technology by exchanging knowledge with China, he said.
Ovec's secretarygeneral said the length of the courses will range from three months to one year
because the country cannot wait until the new vocational institute is ready to produce skilled labour