Event: Courtesy Call on H.E. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Ambassador of Thailand to Singapore
Date: 21 February 2023
Venue: Royal Thai Embassy, Singapore
Delegation:
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jomphong Mongkhonvanit, Vice President and Dean, Graduate School of Business, Siam University
- Mr. Worapoom Saengkaew, Siam University PhD Student (NRCT Kanchanaphisek Scholarship Recipient)
- Faculty and Researchers from the Institute of Adult Learning (IAL), Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS)
Research Topic: Developing Learning for Older Adults (การพัฒนาการเรียนรู้ให้ผู้สูงอายุ)
Category: News / Adult Learning Research, Singapore-Thailand Academic Cooperation & Ageing Workforce Policy
Overview
On 21 February 2023, a joint delegation from Siam University’s Graduate School of Business and the Institute of Adult Learning (IAL) under Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) paid a formal courtesy call on H.E. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of Singapore, at the Royal Thai Embassy in Singapore.
The visit, documented on the Royal Thai Embassy Singapore’s official social media, served to report the progress of a collaborative research project on the development of learning for older adults — a topic of growing significance for both Thailand and Singapore as both countries navigate the social and economic implications of rapidly ageing populations. Ambassador Chutintorn engaged actively with the delegation, exchanging views on developing skills for older workers, extending retirement ages, and designing effective adult learning systems.
The Research: Learning for Older Adults — A Thailand-Singapore Collaboration
The research project sits at the intersection of two of the most consequential policy challenges facing ASEAN’s rapidly ageing economies: how to keep older workers productive, skilled, and engaged, and how to design learning systems that genuinely work for adult learners who have different cognitive profiles, career stages, and motivations than traditional student populations.
The collaboration between Siam University and IAL-SUSS represents a natural research partnership. Thailand faces one of the most severe demographic ageing trajectories in Southeast Asia — with a falling birth rate (TFR approximately 1.2), a rapidly growing older population, and an economy that increasingly cannot afford to treat retirement as a hard exit from productive life. Singapore, meanwhile, has developed one of the world’s most sophisticated systems for adult learning and workforce participation through its SkillsFuture initiative — offering direct lessons for countries in an earlier stage of the same demographic transition.
By combining Singapore’s adult learning expertise with Thailand’s educational institutions and workforce development challenges, the research team is generating insights applicable to both countries and the broader ASEAN context.
The Delegation
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jomphong Mongkhonvanit — leading the Siam University component as Vice President and Dean of the Graduate School of Business. His research interests in human capital development, adult learning, and the intersection of education, demographics, and economic growth make this project a direct extension of his academic mission.
Mr. Worapoom Saengkaew — Siam University PhD student and holder of the prestigious Kanchanaphisek (Golden Jubilee) Scholarship from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) — one of Thailand’s highest national research fellowships, awarded to outstanding doctoral researchers. His doctoral research on adult learning for older populations forms the core of the collaborative project.
Faculty and Researchers from IAL-SUSS — Singapore-based specialists from the Institute of Adult Learning, dedicated to training adult educators, researching workforce development, and driving innovative practices in Continuing Education and Training (CET) across the SkillsFuture ecosystem.
About IAL-SUSS
The Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), established in 2008 and restructured since 2019 as an autonomous institute within SUSS, is Singapore’s national centre of excellence for adult learning. Its work spans professional development for adult educators, applied research into workforce learning, and the design of innovative CET practices — all in direct service of Singapore’s national SkillsFuture agenda. For a Thai institution seeking to understand what effective, large-scale adult learning systems look like, IAL-SUSS is an unparalleled research partner.
Ambassador Chutintorn’s Engagement
Ambassador H.E. Chutintorn Gongsakdi — a career diplomat with extensive experience in multilateral economic diplomacy across ASEAN, APEC, OECD, and WTO — brought substantive personal engagement to the courtesy call, exchanging views on three interlocking policy questions: skills development programmes for older adults, extending retirement age as a structural economic response to demographic decline, and the broader institutional infrastructure needed to make adult learning a genuine national priority.
Key Takeaways
- The Siam University–SUSS IAL research collaboration on learning for older adults addresses one of the most important challenges facing Thailand and ASEAN as populations age rapidly — with practical policy implications for skills, retirement, and lifelong learning architecture
- Mr. Worapoom Saengkaew’s NRCT Kanchanaphisek Scholarship provides national recognition and funding for doctoral research at the heart of this initiative
- IAL-SUSS’s status as Singapore’s national centre of excellence for adult learning makes it an ideal partner for generating transferable, evidence-based insights on adult skills development
- Ambassador Chutintorn’s active engagement signals the Thai diplomatic community’s recognition that workforce ageing is a strategic national priority, not merely a social policy matter
- For Siam University, this project demonstrates the institution’s capacity to pursue policy-relevant research through international partnerships and to bring its findings to the highest levels of Thailand’s diplomatic and policy community
Courtesy call on H.E. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of Singapore, Royal Thai Embassy, Singapore, 21 February 2023. Source: Royal Thai Embassy, Singapore (official social media post).