11 minute read
Vocational education development for Thailand 4.0
Wichit Tangwongchuensuk, Qualification and Training Manager of BMW Group Thailand
Vocational education plays a vital role in the realisation of Thailand 4.0 as it is always linked with the industrial development. In this issue of UPDATE Mr. Wichit Tangwongchuensuk, Qualification and Training Manager, BMW Group Thailand, shares with the Chamber details of BMW’s active participation in enhancing the skills of vocational students in order to foster human resource development and economic growth in Thailand. Mr. WIchit is responsible for supervising the skill and knowledge training of people at BMW dealerships and the BMW network throughout Thailand. He also collaborates with colleagues in this region, including Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and Australia for human resources development, especially on how to manage and improve each function of the BMW dealer network. He has been working with BMW since 2012.
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Could you please share with us a brief overview of vocational education and vocational students’ quality in Thailand?
The overall quality of Thai students regarding knowledge is quite impressive, but the knowledge depends on the mentors and the curricula. If a school has a good curriculum and good teachers, then the outcome will definitely be good.
Based on my experience, private technical colleges outperform government-owned institutions in terms of student quality. Currently, we have four technical colleges in our BMW Service Apprentice Programme. Three of them are private, while one is government-owned. The student quality of private colleges is above average while the government-owned ones are still below average.
How has BMW developed the human resources in mechatronics since the company started its operation in Thailand? When did it feel that there was a need for dual vocational education?
In 1998, the year that BMW AG established the BMW Group Thailand and BMW Manufacturing Thailand in Rayong, there was not much progress during the millennium year 1999-2000. BMW Group is a relatively new company in Thailand, operating only for about 20 years. However, BMW vehicles actually entered the Thai market much earlier, through our sole distributors more than 50 years ago.
Before I joined BMW in 2012, the sales volume per year in Thailand was nearly 3,000 cars; however, it reached more than 12,000 cars in 2021. From the beginning, our dealers managed their own human resources by recruiting technicians based on agreements with technical schools. Then in 2012, we began acting as a supporter for our dealers. In 2012-2014, we had one technical college as our partner and we recruited and supplied 18-20 students to our dealer network, without the support of German-Thai Chamber of Commerce (GTCC). BMW just added technical knowledge or a technical training programme to the curriculum they had. However, we changed considerably in 2013 when we started the BMW Service Apprentice Programme in partnership with GTDEE/GTCC. We changed the curriculum to our current level, in which the students will spend 70% of their time studying es at the dealership and only 30% at their school to gain some foundational knowledge.
We always ask our dealership “how many students would you like to recruit this year under your people development scheme?” We carry out a “Workshop Capacities Analysis (WOCA)” quite often on aspects such as work-based efficiency, productivity and network expansion. The objective is to find the number of students that dealerships need and to provide support for their business. Once we have the result, we discuss the subject with our colleagues – both in GTCC and technical colleges – how the need can be met.
Are there any differences between pre- Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 in the way vocational education is conducted? How is BMW adapting to those changes?
We have to separate this perspective into two main areas. The first area concerns pure knowledge, in which there is not much change. What has been changed considerably is the way to deliver results as well as the way students receive knowledge.
The second area is the curriculum preparation involves much more than just face-to-face learning, such as digital training materials, the quality of which must be high, no matter whether it is face-to-face or online learning. This has created much work on the trainer's side, as that means all printed materials and activities must be converted to digital files or even videos. However, this approach has not yet been introduced in the BMW service apprentice programme because our students are not yet ready. However, we plan to recruit our next group this year and will provide a virtual classroom for them.
How does the Electric Vehicle (EV) technology trend affect current dual vocational education and training in Thailand? How must we prepare for that area of learning?
First, EVs in Thailand is a growing trend, but only for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). What is not a trend yet are plug-in hybrid or hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Thus, the curriculum will have to be changed as the combustion engine, gearbox or even transmission will no longer exist in BEV cars. What I’m worried about is the learning curve that has to be adapted and expanded little by little. While the BEV trend will grow exponentially in the next few years, the learning curve will be more linear and take longer to grow.
We started transferring knowledge of high voltage batteries to our students around 2018, as a foundation for them. However, the students cannot apply that knowledge yet because electric vehicle use has only just started. BMW started to introduce plug-in hybrids to the Thai market for the first time in December 2015. For the next two years we started providing this knowledge to our technicians at dealerships as the first group, then to the second group of our apprentices. Up to now the GTDEE programme students have medium- or high-voltage technical knowledge. Once the market requires BEV skills, they will be ready.
Are any new skill sets required in vocational education for the younger generation in Thailand during and after Covid-19?
When we look at vocational education, there is no English or international vocational school at all in Thailand. Thus, students choosing a vocational curriculum have no other option but a Thai school, while choosing an academic curriculum they will always have a choice of either a Thai or English school.
In BMW, every training programme starts with the German language because our headquarters is in Germany. Then it is translated into English. Each year BMW needs to spend more than 5 million baht for translation which takes at least a month, depending on the contents. Every month we are lost waiting for the translation that we also lost our opportunity cost.
Apart from English, we need proper devices for effective learning, such as a wide-screen device with good resolution, software or headphones. Another point is the curriculum. You can’t have a six-hour, face-to-face programme on screen per day. We can’t bombard those difficult contents to audiences who are on the other side of the camera. It would be great to consider splitting it into many small sessions.
In your opinion, what is the “Sustainability Culture of BMW” and what makes BMW unique in terms of people development?
For us it is something like rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle. In our culture, these four words are always part of our daily work. For the uniqueness in terms of people development, the first one is our approach. The GTDEE project is always a three-party involvement programme with each own role and responsibility: the technical college, the private company and GTCC who calibrates the curriculum, quality and standard. We are unique because we have the support of the German-Thai Chamber of Commerce.
The second uniqueness is every student in our programme applies to level A. For BMW we have had only A level as a Germany standard since 2017 (Graduated in 2019). I don’t think there are any companies in Thailand that approach dual education programmes with only A level comparable to German standards like BMW.
Due to BMW’s high success in 2021, the turnover rate of technicians has become almost zero per cent. Does BMW Group Thailand see that as a success in achieving sustainability?
We have established sustainability in our technical function at the dealerships, and the rate of turnover is decreasing. We had zero turnover in master technician and senior technician positions last year. We are the only company that invests in employee voices. There are several voices we should listen to – the first is the voice of the customer (VOC), which is our highest priority; the second is the voice of the learner (VOL), which is the area we provide after the training; and the third is the voice of employee (VOE), which we divided into two groups of employees. Employees of the BMW Group are the first. Another one is all of the dealerships’ employees.
In your opinion how will disruption by technology and artificial intelligence (AI) affect the workforce in the automotive industry?
From my perspective, there will be more disruption, for example, the speed of 4G. There is also 5G and the Internet of things (IoT). In 2015-2016, we began thinking about digitalization and we set up a new digitalization manager position in BMW Group companies around the world.
For private companies, the disruption will generate bigger gaps between those who are ready and not yet ready. BMW is ready for all that will come. However, there is still concern for our partners, such as technical colleges, over how they can speed up or how fast they can move with, or follow us. We have to accept that AI will replace some careers and we need to find a way to use, handle and live with new technologies.
What is your perspective of “the future of work in the automotive industry”? Is it possible to do remote work by humans operating robots remotely in the case of Thailand?
Yes, the first trend that already exists is contactless, as we have introduced a contactless service last year. In the past, you would drive a car to a showroom and wait for a service advisor to come, but now you just need a BMW application to schedule services by yourself. The car will be equipped with smart software that transmits all information to the chosen service partners. The car can use the condition based service (CBS) by diagnosing itself regularly and transmitting the information to customers who have an application and to the service partners. The second thing is digitalization. Everything will go online, such as autonomous driving, which is truly smart and can support you. You can join a meeting even if you are in your car as well as work through the digital platform wherever you are located.
Regarding the use of technology in education, are there any technologies you feel could be applied in vocational and dual vocational education?
Virtual reality is a future that excites not only me, but perhaps everyone. In any case, virtual reality begins with the entertainment industry, with education taking a much longer time to consider because it is not as pleasant or enjoyable as entertainment. We have a virtual certification training programme, named Unit 18, the R&D for the digital training world, in the BMW group in Munich for generating digital content and thinking about using virtual reality technology. We're introducing this to our Thai apprentice programmes. One advantage is that Thais are quite open to change and adapt easily to new situations. We can introduce products around the same time as other Western countries, whereas in the past, when new products were launched in Germany, it could take up to two years for them to be launched in Thailand. I am definitely very optimistic about Thailand's future education programme success because we have excellent resources that include our people.
Contact details: Wichit Tangwongchuensuk Qualification and Training Manager BMW Group Thailand +66 85 488 0781 wichit.tangwongcheunsuk@bmw.co.th https://www.bmw.co.th/th/home.html
Interviewed by Chanikan Kengluecha, GTCC Membership, Events and Communication trainee
