Tech Syllabus Needs Improvement

The government should endorse more intensive ICT courses to stay competitive in the digital transformation era, says the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).

ICT courses on the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing can be conducted by partnering with educational institutes, Somkiat Tangkitvanich, president of the TDRI, said at the “Building Digital Workforce, from Quantity to Quality” seminar.

According to a joint study by the TDRI with Thai government, the ICT sector in Thailand suffers from a shortage of qualified personnel.

The study showed that Rajabhat University and Rajamangala University are examples of institutes where plenty of computer-related courses are offered, but most are ineffective.

Many courses are outdated and cannot harmonise with the fast-changing technology.

According to the TDRI’s latest report, there were 20,000 ICT graduates last year, but 7,000 of them are still unemployed or have moved into other areas of business.

The report said the ICT sector is in need of 14,000 workers.

The result of the study has confirmed the outcome of surveys’ ecommerceIQ released recently, which most of the entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia said they have faced the shortage of the tech talent, resulting in the slow development of tech-related businesses across the region.

The study said the government should actively collaborate with educational institutes to work further on deep learning and machine learning technology.

Emerging technologies including IoT, big data, AI and the cloud are crucial in driving the country towards achieving Thailand 4.0.

In 2017, the ICT workforce was 268,065 strong. ICT technical staff accounted for 35%, and ICT experts accounted for 31%, while the rest worked in sales, marketing and multimedia.

Reference: Bangkok Post and ecommerceIQ