Current Condition, Needs, and Readiness Affect Competency of Training Teachers in The Electric Vehicle Companies

Abstract

Thailand is facing the situation of changes in the automotive industry. Thailand is a base country for automobile production in the region, considered that Thailand has internal combustion engine expertise and leading to the electric vehicle industry therefore in order to get ready for such changes, Thailand has a policy to develop all aspects in electric vehicle including the manpower with both quantity and quality to feed into the vehicle industry by the Office of the Vocational Education Commission as the main agency for producing the country's vocational workforce. Office of the Vocational Education Commission received the policy and recognized the importance of such changes therefore the High Vocational Certificate programs in Mechanical Techniques and Electric Vehicle Techniques are offered. To meet the real needs of vehicle industry, vocational education colleges must co-operate with companies related to vehicle industry that have professionals to participate in teaching as the joint teachers to produce labor force according to the needs. The questions for research are about: current condition, needs, and how readiness affect competency of training teachers in the electric vehicle companies. First of all, this research was a qualitative study, using document analysis as an important research method to synthesize the conceptual framework of educational institution basic information together with the competence of training teachers in the electric vehicle workplaces. The next step was to study the current situations, needs and readiness affecting competency of teachers in the electric vehicle companies by using a questionnaire at the vocational education colleges offering high vocational certificate programs in Mechanical Techniques and Electric Vehicle Techniques in Thailand. It was found from a qualitative study that (i) there were both public and private vocational education colleges offering vocational certificate programs in Mechanical Techniques and Electric Vehicle Techniques altogether 18 out of a total of 874 institutions. The necessary competency required for teachers in the electric vehicle companies obtaining from the document synthesis had a total of 5 aspects namely Core competency, Technical competency, Management competency, Social competency, and Professional competency. (ii) there are The 5 aspects of necessary competency required for teachers in the electric vehicle companies sorting priority from high to low are: 1) Technical competency, 2) Core competency, 3) Professional competency, 4) Management competency, and 5) Social competency.