Thai students to become quality professionals in ASEAN

BANGKOK, January 7 (TNA) - Counselors can play their vital roles for the success of high school students, by becoming quality professionals in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Speaking on Monday at an academic event organized at Bangkok-based Kasetsart University, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana advised some 400 school counselors from across Thailand to advocate and guide their students to successfully choose their career paths and to make their right moves to maximize benefit in the widely-open ASEAN environment. To help students figure out on which career paths they need to focus, Pongthep recommended that students who seek counseling services should not only be provided with only each year’s universities admission scores, but also information on updated demand for personnel in the ASEAN labour market. Pongthep also stressed the importance of mathematics and science studies, pointing out that Thailand should produce more personnel to deal with, probably, shortages of workers due to the growing regional automobile industry. According to the Thai deputy premier, school counselors can also help support students' aspiration to become regional entrepreneurs, while also encouraging them amid rising competition in the region. The deputy premier also suggested that it is also essential for every counselor to be well aware of each country’s job restrictions and related job agreements. Another key panelist at the event, Dr Siriporn Boonyananta, from The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement or IEA, meanwhile, acknowledged that school counselors can also help prepare students to adapt themselves in terms of cross-cultural differences, as the ASEAN Single Community, set to be formed by 2015, will then become more diversified. (TNA)