Feedback on Asean labour rules and training
November 23, 2009 by Chanida Sa-ngiamphaisalsuk
Filed under News
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports is hosting public hearings with tourism related associations to review the draft of the Asean tourism curriculum to ensure it can start curriculum testing in 2013.
At the first session attended by 700 members of the Federation of Thai Travel Agents, permanent secretary, Sasithara Pichaichannarong, said she was looking for feedback and co-operation from the private sector on the Asean Free Trade Agreement on Tourism and the Mutual Recognition Agreement.
The agreement touches on a wide range of issues from training in tourism and hospitality through to the free flow of labour across the Asean region particularly in tourism.
“We have been working on this project for seven years and have generated feedback from various agencies and regions.”
However, some executives from the private sector said the project had not been explained in detail and there were still many unanswered questions on what it would mean for private travel firms.
According to Ms Sasithara, the Ministry has now completed an initial curriculum to train personnel in four specific areas. They are bell boy, waiter, travel consultant, and ticketing manager. Manual publishing and demonstration training will start once the Bt200-million budget is approved possibly by the end of the year.
The Ministry claims a curriculum for 33 job titles, related to tourism, will be finished in 2013 in time for Thailand to sign the Mutual Recognition Agreement on Tourism Professionals with other Asean countries in 2015.
She has requested Bt200 million from the government’s second economic stimulus package to establish the National Institute for Tourism Personnel Development, which looks at the subject of free-flow of labour in Asean. This is in addition to the budget for the fiscal year 2010, which is estimated at Bt5 million.
The budget will be used to establish the institute’s headquarters in the Ministry of Tourism and Sports’ office, develop a curriculum, conduct curriculum tests and publish manuals.
People’s capability in internatioal languages is important for globalisation, FTA and labour free-flow. Thai should pay attention more on foreign languages because we are lagging behind most other ASEAN nations in communication. If we want to gain an advantage from globalisation, we need to broaden the use of English widely in the country. How to do that is an issue that needs to be addressed?