By Jomphong Mongkhonvanit
IIEP-UNESCO Visiting Researcher (2025) · Vice President, Siam University, Thailand
Synopsis
Thailand’s ambition to escape the middle-income trap and build a higher-value economy rests on a workforce equipped with strong foundational skills — literacy, numeracy, basic digital, and socio-emotional skills. Yet the country faces a foundational skills crisis: national assessment data show that more than 64 per cent of adults and youth struggle with basic literacy and over 74 per cent with using digital devices, while PISA scores have declined steadily over the past decade. These gaps are deepest among older adults, rural populations, and learners from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
This IIEP Visiting Researcher Note examines why foundational skills are decisive for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and how Thailand can close the gap between strong policy intent and uneven delivery. Drawing on document analysis, secondary skills data, and 28 stakeholder interviews with policymakers, teachers, and students, it finds that foundational skills are well recognized in Thailand’s qualification frameworks but are not consistently translated into practice — constrained by limited teacher training, unequal infrastructure between rural and urban areas, and high dropout driven by financial pressure.
The note sets out practical, delivery-focused recommendations: measure and monitor foundational skills, strengthen diagnostics and remediation in formal TVET, invest in teacher development, expand applied and project-based learning, reduce regional disparities in infrastructure, bolster financial and learner-support mechanisms, and improve access and skills recognition in non-formal and workplace pathways. Aimed at TVET policymakers, institutional leaders, and development partners, it offers a focused diagnosis and an actionable agenda for building more equitable skills outcomes across Thailand’s lifelong learning system.
Publication details
Series: IIEP Visiting Researcher Notes · Publisher: IIEP-UNESCO · Year: 2026 · Format: PDF (15 pp.)
License: Open Access — CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO · © UNESCO 2026