Inside ASEAN Column

Column:  Inside ASEAN

Written by:  The Committee on Education and Sports, National Legislative Assembly

Translated by:  Bureau of Foreign Languages

The Visit and Bilateral Meeting of the Committee

on Education and Sports, the National Legislative Assembly

The Standing Committee on Education and Sports, the National Legislative Assembly, led by Mr. Tuang Untachai, Chairperson of the Committee as head of delegation, members of the National Legislative Assembly, the Committee and the Sub-Committee, paid a visit and had a bilateral meeting to exchange ideas on vocational education relating to rail transport system. The delegation visited Liuzhou Railway Vocational Technical College in Liuzhou city to observe laboratories/training facilities and Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University in Guilin city to acquire information on foreign language course. Both places are in Guangxi Province, the People’s Republic of China. The purposes of the visit are to study the structure and guidelines managing vocational courses on both rail transport system and foreign languages, call for cooperation, develop academic knowledge and also further strengthen Sino-Thai relations.

1. Bilateral meeting with Executive Officers of Liuzhou Railway Vocational Technical College in Liuzhou city

Liuzhou Railway Vocational Technical College is one of the top technical colleges under the Ministry of Education that has been recognized as an “excellent school” equivalent to the first generation technical colleges in Guangxi province. This college is recognized in the industry being the pioneer to develop the technical skill “Railway Whampoa Military Academy” in the southwest region of China. Moreover, this college has standardized and comprehensive fieldwork training on rail transport and internal practices.

Liuzhou Railway Vocational Technical College is acknowledged by many companies in the field of railway and urban railway system due to the college being academically equipped to teach rail transport system. The college is top ranked in employment rate for graduates compared to graduates who studied in the same field from other schools in Guangxi province. Furthermore, the college is the first college to support the country’s “One Belt and One Road Policy”, similar to the western “Northward Cooperation, Development to the South Policy”, which emphasizes on rail transport careers in the northern region. The technical college has the cooperation with universities such as National Chiao Tung University.  Liuzhou Railway Vocational Technical College, together with Beijing Jiaotong University, established a technical college in the Sino-Russia Silk Road while incorporating “the Training Foundation for International Students” project which specializes in rail transport technology and other expertise.

Creating Sino-Thai Educational Cooperation

Liuzhou Railway Vocational Technical College established educational cooperation with 4 Thai vocational colleges including 1. Ayutthaya Technological Commercial College, 2. Tharn Technological College, 3. Chonburi Technological College and 4. Nakhonnayok Commercial Technological College by creating courseworks on rail transport together.

The duration of the degree consists of 1 year of study in Thailand and another 1.5 years in China. Within this cooperation, all 4 educational institutes utilize the same resources comprising personnel, lecturers, equipment and also facilities to teach certain classes to lower the cost. The goal in managing such cooperation is to produce technical personnel to support S Curve and New S Curve industries through different degree programmes as follows: 1. aviation technician programme, 2. control and maintenance railway logistic system programme, 3. railway station management programme, 4. logistic management programme, 5. tourism and hotel management programme, 6. software embedded system programme, 7. electric vehicle programme and 8. mechatronics and robotics programme.

Important Issues and Ideas Exchanged during the Bilateral Meeting

I. Thailand has the policy to reform the rail transport system and established the Department of Rail Transport in order to support such policy.  Although there is an increase in demand of personnel specialized in rail transport, there are many limitations obstructing the production of such personnel in Thailand. To produce personnel that is needed and able to effectively support the work, the Committee views that educational cooperation between Liuzhou Railway Vocational Technical College and vocational colleges in Thailand is vital and should expand their networks and cooperations. Furthermore, both countries should increase the level of academic cooperation projects that have already been implemented to be a policy between the public sector of both countries.

II. Chitralada Technology College agrees to participate in the educational project during the bilateral meeting where both parties exchanged of ideas on vocational development and cooperation for rail transport system. The dual degree programme on rail transport specifies the students to study in Thailand for 1 year and continue their study in the People’s Republic of China for another 1.5 years with the aim of producing vocational personnel to support the S-Curve in rail transport industry.

III. On the matter of producing personnel on rail transport system, the priority to the creation and development of teachers’ competencies shall be the main focus in order to ensure that the operations are in line with the current situation and needs. In addition, there shall be the strong support for higher education institutes to be involved in creating and developing personnel on rail transport system in the future.

2. Bilateral Meeting with Executive Officials of Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University in Guilin city

The Faculty of Language and Literature, Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University, created good relationship with many universities and agencies in the Kingdom of Thailand such as the Confucius Institute in Thailand, Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Radio Thailand, and University of Thai Chamber of Commerce by creating a coursework specifically for Thai students, namely the Project on Training and Developing Chinese Language Knowledge of Thai Students. 44 students from 4 universities participated in this programme to study and develop Chinese communication skills used to study rail transport system, which also contributes to educational cooperation between the two countries.

Important Issues and Ideas Exchanged during the Bilateral Meeting

Currently, there has been an increase in students from Thailand studying Chinese language at Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University for reasons that the Chinese language becomes more popular and has a higher demand in communication. Understanding Chinese language will further increase more work opportunities for those who know the language. Therefore, the Committee realizes that development of academic knowledge between Thailand-China shall be increasingly promoted, especially Chinese language learning in secondary school level and university level. There shall be an exchange of students, undergraduates and educational personnel in the future in order to develop the economy and society and build the good relations between the two countries.

Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University is willing to provide cooperation for promoting the development of academic knowledge and Chinese language between Thailand and China for the sake of students and academic personnel in both countries. The operations of the college enable students and educational personnel to have activities together to exchange language knowledge and help one another. The Committee acknowledges and accentuates the aforesaid style of learning as it can efficiently develop students to be competent and skillful compared to traditional learning. 

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