วันอาทิตย์ที่ 21 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2558

Vocational schools and cruise ship industry


Hello from my home desktop ka….good to be back to write again!

May was very a hectic month with various activities while June was filled with some work and more pleasure, fortunately.

During my one-week cruise ship trip, I met quite a lot of people/waiters, obviously including Filipinos. There were many Indonesians and it surprised me somehow….I may not have thought about Indonesians as mobile people mung ka!

One Filipino guy who was ‘assistant waiter’ helped take care of us at all our dinners.  He wants to continue working in this industry and his ambition is to be ‘Restaurant Manager’.

It was a delight to see two young Thais who were also on the staff team ka.

I felt very proud of them and was even more impressed after talking with them.

Both graduated from vocational colleges, one from Roi-et and the other from Chonburi.

I asked the first one about his English proficiency and he said he had to take the test twice which was really hard for him. Once he was on board, he gradually picked up the language as he was assigned to a new station every day and met lots of people under differing situations ka.

The other is a Mixologist who is highly capable. He’s had more experiences working in some hotels in Pattaya before. He impressed me with his determination and persistence ka. His responsibilities required him to tend the bar for 12 hours and could be longer if there were guests. He was exhausted but feeling good about it. From his 7-month contract, he has been able to earn 450,000 baht and has already sent home 300,000+ for his parents to build a house. He said as he is the first one to enter this industry from his college, he plans to share his experiences with his ‘juniors’ at his college once he comes back home.

My thoughts about these two Thais are:

1. They are excellent examples to inspire vocational students and others in our society to think twice about vocational schools.

2. Though vocational colleges can ‘boast’ of the success (like how much they could earn, and how great the opportunities have given, etc.), they need to look into their own curriculums seriously and identify both strengths and weaknesses how to produce more qualified graduates….whether the colleges themselves have the capability in this service industry and what would be needed to enter the industry. Otherwise, these two kids could only be exceptional cases the colleges keep promoting to the public which doesn't signify the true quality of the colleges lae ka.

3. To follow this track, our own kids have to learn how to dream realistically to be more determined, and tough, and most importantly to have courage to go try and fail.

4. Could vocational college teachers become their models on these attributes (including their efforts to learn foreign languages) too?

More to share soon ka!

 

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