Thailand’s Dual Education System: A Way Forward offers a pioneering and timely investigation into the development of dual education in Thailand — a model that integrates structured workplace training with formal technical and vocational instruction — at a moment when the country’s competitiveness depends increasingly on producing a highly skilled and industry-ready workforce. Employing a robust mixed-methods approach that combines documentary analysis, surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with stakeholders from technical and vocational institutes, employers, and government bodies, the study is the first of its kind to comprehensively examine the status, values, and operational dynamics of Thailand’s dual education system through the lens of a tripartite framework. Drawing on comparative insights from four international reference countries, the authors identify nine critical factors essential to strengthening the system — spanning curriculum design, in-school teaching, accredited qualifications, student engagement, employer involvement, in-company training, and government policy — while making the case that sustained collaboration, mutual trust, and shared accountability among government, companies, and vocational institutions are the indispensable foundations for any meaningful reform. With growing enthusiasm for dual education among students, parents, institutes, and industry alike, this article provides both a diagnostic baseline and a forward-looking policy roadmap, offering lessons that extend well beyond Thailand to other developing nations navigating similar challenges in aligning vocational education with labour market demands.
Thailand’s Dual Education System: A Way Forward
