Thailand to equip students with robotics skills

To meet future demand, Thailand aims to teach 5,200 vocational students each year, equipping them with skills to work with and maintain factory robots. 

Under the scheme, the Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC), which sits within the country’s Ministry of Education, intends to train students to meet the estimated demand for 70,000 robotics-trained workers at present, and 200,000 of such workers by 2024.

This will be carried out through various mechatronics and robotic courses taught at 161 private and state schools countrywide under the Human Capital Excellent Center (HCEC), which the government has established to improve standards of teaching careers for primary and secondary education, as well as vocational schools across the country.  

With the move, Thailand hopes that it would be able to meet market demand for workers with basic robotics know-how, crucial at a time when factories are moving from Thailand to China, and existing factories are upgrading their facilities with robotics. 

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The HCEC also plans to double worker capacity by reskilling and upskilling existing factory workers to meet current worker demand.