Preparedness for the 4th renovation of Thai Labor

Abstract

At present, the fourth industrial revolution has been in the spotlight and a focus of government and private sectors, business, educational institutions and non-government organizations. This industrial evaluation is the world’s major change and will definitely take place within the next 20 years. It is in the period of integration of manufacturing of products with great diversity to accommodate each consumer within short period, with cost saving and efficiency with everything connected in the form of “the Internet of Things (IoT) and with total use of digital technologies. The industrial revolution will lead to changes all over the world which is unavoidable to Thailand in terms of economic and social aspects. Thailand’s labor is another sector certainly affected by the fourth industrial revolution. Therefore, the labor must be aware of this and get ready to be equipped with knowledge, and analytical thinking, problem solving and language skills to transform themselves from unskilled labor and semi-skilled labor to skilled labor. However, it is not practical for the labor to do the development alone. The government as the administrator of the country must provide assistance and support to them in order that they can adapt and develop themselves. Preparedness to accommodate this mega change can be executed into 2 levels as micro and macro levels. For micro level, the labor must be active in self-development in terms of knowledge, attitude and working and living skills to be in compliance with the arising changes. As for macro level, the government as the country’s leader and administrator has to accelerate policy to deal with imbalanced labor production which does not align with labor market, low birth rate affecting the country’s population’s structure leading to shortage of labor and ageing society. The government must expand high speed internet network to increase the labor’s accessibility with low cost or without any cost charged to promote the labor’s advancement and develop knowledge in the internet technology. All these will finally transform the country to a learning society.The above strategies are vital to  preparing Thailand’s labor‘s readiness and ability to adjust to changes taking place in the 4.0 revolution coming in the near future.