Field trip note: Visiting Grwp Llandrillo Menai vocational college
I had chance to join a business trip organized by British Council Thailand and Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC) to visit Grwp Llandrillo Menai vocational college on the 27 March 2017. Learn more about the collaboration/project here 1 here 2.
I was initially contacted to facilitate the communication (as a translator) between visiting team from Thailand and the staff/management at the college. The day was the third day of the visiting team from Thailand living in the UK. The team comprised of a group leader/facilitator from British Council, directors from different Thai regional vocational colleges, and representatives from those colleges. Their aim was to visit some vocation colleges in the UK, learn about the vocational college system here to adapt to the Thai system, and follow up the consultation and collaboration that has been done previously with the partner colleges.
I join them on the day at Chester Train station to which the team traveled from London. The college took us from the station to our accommodation in Wales. We arrived in the late afternoon. The tour leader (from British Council) and I were trying to find a dinner place for us all (totaling 18 people). We did not manage to book a place in advance and it was a mother’s day weekends. Thus all the restaurants around the area were booked up. Eventually, we took the team to a pub nearby for Sunday brunch to fill up our energy before the college on the next morning. On one hand, it was not the best meal in terms of the food. On the other hand, it was a really good choice for the team to experience traditional Sunday brunch (and of course drinking in an English pub!).
Welcoming the team from Thailand at Grwp Llandrillo Menai College
We got picked up by the college’s mini buses to travel to the college.
The team’s main aim of this trip is to learn about how vocation education is integrated with entrepreneurship education. I had a great opportunity to learn about vocation education; and how to integrate Entrepreneurship education and Enterprise education into the vocational education curriculum/courses. This visit has been an eye-opening experience to see the UK system in action. More importantly, I also had a chance to ask questions and discuss about Thailand’s vocational education with all the directors and representatives. I have limited knowledge about the system, as in Thailand and in the environment I have been brought up (in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand), the emphasis has significantly been placed more on higher education than vocational education. Thus, I am more familiar with the belief that when ones finish their high school years, they need to go to university… But joining this trip has changed my limited view based on what I have known for years.
The college tour started with the welcoming speech from the management team of the college. They organized a mini workshop they used with their students to teach about enterprise and entrepreneurship. All of us enjoyed the workshop and clearly see the differences between the teaching style here and the teaching style in Thailand. Throughout the two-day trip, I was helping them with translation and facilitate the communication and everything I can to make their visit go smoothly
Lesson learned from the visit (Note from one of the Thai directors)
One of the directors from Thailand reflected on what she had grasped on the workshop at the college on her personal blog that “fun way of teaching and learning”, and “fun classes that are full of content and ideas relating to business and entrepreneurial strategies” can create success create “successful entrepreneurship in the future”.
After the formal welcoming session and the workshop, we had a chance to visit several departments/programs, including culinary, computer graphic, hair and beauty, and engineering.
One of my favorite departments was the engineering program, where students were working on the wind turbine project. They were assigned to work with a company, which partners with the college, to work on the real problems and find the solution(s). This program seemed like a special program of the college as there were about 3-4 students each year selected to be in this project. After the completion of the project, they have a high chance to get hired by the partnering firm that they have done the internship with.
Also, after our visit at the engineering department, we had lunch at the college’s restaurant that runs by the students. With minimal supervision, the students did all the food preparation and waiting services. We were impressed by the services and the students’ enthusiasm and passion about what they did.
This learning style/environment reflects the note made by the same Thai director that …
(1) The number of students per class here is a lot less compared to classes in Thailand.
(2) Learning-by-doing is the important practice to implement in the class to make the students have first-hand experience about skills that they are learning
(3) Almost of the students in the UK, who took vocational education programs, have specific purposes regarding what they would like to do in the future since their early adolescent years.
These three observations could be the key factors that make vocational education system in the UK considered, more or less, successful than that in Thailand. However, directly comparing Thai vocational education system with that of the UK is not a fair comparison because there are some cultural differences. Those include perception on vocational education route (vs higher education route), and the realization about the importance of vocational education and entrepreneurial skills.
I myself also have limited knowledge about vocational education. This field trip, working as a translator, did not only make me utilize my translation skills, but also make me gain some knowledge about vocational and enterprise education. This was an eye-opening experience for me to know more about UK education system. Also, as I have seen in the media recently about the movement of public and private sectors to promote and provide knowledge about vocational education in Thailand, this field trip fulfilled my thrust to know more about the education system.
Too much emphasis on higher education in Thailand?
In my opinion, the promotion of vocation, enterprise and entrepreneurship education has recently gained significant attention. We have placed a great (if not too much) emphasis on the higher education (i.e. university program) and push students to go to university without careful consideration about what they want to be or to do in life. A lot of people I know think that going to university would make ones successful in their careers and in their life. Otherwise, they would have a hard time finding good jobs, or even being happy. Such mindset undermines the significance and importance of vocational route.
However, going to (and finish) university is not the only pathway to have successful career and be happy and wealthy. If ones know what they want to do in life, and are sure that vocational education can help them fulfill their need/dream/potential career aspiration, they should be encouraged and supported to go through the route… not subtly discouraged because of some misleading strong believes about the education system. This situation is highly likely to happen. This might be because of the collective nature of Thai society (unlike more individualistic culture of western societies).
Concluding remarks
I am not trying to conclude or assume that vocational system or higher education system is superior to the other. Also, there should not be excessive emphasis on either system. The imbalance from such excessive emphasis could affect national economic development. For Thailand, the emphasis and importance seem to have been placed on higher education. A number of students and graduate aim/aimed to finish their degrees without knowing clearly about the job or career path beyond their university years. For some families, parents have strong belief that it is great if their children finish university degrees, no matter what degree that study for.
I think such belief and value need to be re-tuned. The importance of both systems should be promoted to guide the young to choose the path that is suitable for their aspiration, not to suit their parents’ dreams or beliefs. This is an important role of, not only parents or teachers, but also everyone in the Thai society to rethink and help redirect this value system to make the development of our people and our economy prosper.
* all images credit to Director Wannapa Puangkul (ผอ. วรรณภา พ่วงกุล)
