Guidelines for Driving Policies for Labor Skills Development for Supporting Changes after the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The objectives of this article is to investigate: 1) the policies that are driving the development of labor skills following the COVID-19 pandemic; and 2) the challenges that government agencies face in such operations. The results revealed that several sectors started operations to develop labor skills in the form of upskills, reskills, and new skills, for example, the Department of Skill Development with modern training programs to be consistent with the situation, especially training programs on utilization of modern technology, innovations, and marketing, the Office of National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council with an operation on promoting and developing pioneer labor skills in EEC areas, the Thailand Automotive Institute with promotion on labor skills development to slow down unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, etc. Such operations of the government sector may encounter several challenges, for example, rapid technological changes, an aging society, an educational system with an inability to produce graduates to meet the demands of the labor market, and opportunities to approach work and skills development of vulnerable groups, etc. In this research, the author presented some policy proposals, for example, observation of trainees' progress, mutual improvement of the educational curriculum with related agencies, and MOU made by and between the Department of Skill Development and the place of business.