Thai & Malaysian delegation visits Dortmund

From 24 to 28 April 2023, the TU Dortmund University project team welcomed a 16-member delegation from Thailand and Malaysia to Dortmund. The delegation included Thai representatives from the National Council for Higher Education Research and Innovation Policy (NXPO), the Vocational Education and Training Commission (OVEC), and three of our Thai partner technical universities (Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL), Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT) and King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB). In addition to two representatives from the Malaysian University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), the delegation included representatives of the Thai private sector from Michelin Siam and Betagro, who are also participants in the School in Factory Programme.

The Study Tour to Germany – a central project aspect

The study tour was – and is – an essential part of the ProWoThai project. TVET stakeholders (researchers, education policy makers, teachers and company representatives) from Thailand and Malaysia spent five days in Dortmund. The aim was to give them the opportunity to explore the German TVET system, its research institutions, such as the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), as well as the learning sites of companies, vocational schools and training centres of the German dual system. Throughout the study tour, the delegates were able to gain a deeper insight into the establishment of vocational education as a scientific discipline.

During visits to various places of learning, such as the Robert Bosch Vocational College and the Chamber of Skilled Crafts in Dortmund, there were lively discussions about school design and cooperation between places of learning in the dual system, complemented by useful insights into (practical) teaching.

In order to shed sufficient light on the entrepreneurial side and to offer the opportunity for exchange, the delegation was able to visit the Dortmund-based companies adesso and WILO. Of particular interest here was their role as training companies, focusing on the structure of vocational training and framework conditions within each company. Numerous educational offers at adesso were discussed and contacts were exchanged at the end of the discussion.

A visit to UNESCO/UNEVOC and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Bonn rounded off the study tour. Vocational education and training research as a scientific discipline dominated the agenda.

The Thai Society of Agricultural Engineering (TSAE) conference was held in the summer of 2022 (August 18-19) at Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL) in Chiangmai, Thailand. The two-day hybrid conference was led by the cooperation partners RMUTL and TU Dortmund University. In essence, the conference presented new technologies, innovations and research results in the field of the agrifood industry. TVET researchers and experts from Thailand, Malaysia and Germany took part in breakout sessions to discuss and analyse work tasks, work processes, and the development of learning and work tasks for use in the classroom. They also initiated a common review process for scientific publications from junior researchers in the RMUT network.

The resulting scientific publications from the TSAE have been published in the “conference proceedings“.

The TU Dortmund “Global Gallery” showcases projects with international reference to an interested audience. Team members from the ProWoThai project had the opportunity to exhibit a poster and present its project to peer researchers from TU Dortmund University in the context of Work-based Learning methodology. With the help of the gallery walk method, the audience could learn more about the respective projects and enter into exchange with the exhibitors. More information on the Global Gallery can be found at: https://international.tu-dortmund.de/internationaler-campus/veranstaltungen/global-gallery/

This three-day online workshop in July 2021 focused on various methods and instruments of empirical vocational training research: qualitative guided interviews and the construction of guidelines, the design of questionnaires and common evaluation methods. For example, research instruments (questionnaires and guidelines) for quantitative and qualitative surveys (expert interviews, questionnaire surveys, case studies) were developed in close consultation with the Thai project teams, based on the innovation-oriented (operationalised) research objectives.

The project had to be conducted partially online, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This workshop in February 2021 addressed the action research approach, identifying central research questions and examining how project descriptions are written. On the basis of these theoretical inputs, participants were able to continue working on their respective project descriptions in group work situations (“breakout sessions”) and discuss them with each other.

In 2020, shortly before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, a capacity building workshop was held in Chiangmai, Thailand. The main task of this workshop was to introduce the topic of “Work-based Learning” to the participants and to identify projects in Thailand which had already adopted Work-based Learning approaches. This workshop resulted in 4 project descriptions of WBL approaches, which were then worked on in more detail with the respective partners in Thailand. Due to the pandemic,  the research process suffered delays, but was resumed in the course of the year and “reactivated” in  cooperation.

The ProWoThai Kick-Off workshop was held In 2019, on site in Bangkok, Thailand. Project objectives, structures for communication and partners were discussed in detail, as well as respective and related taks.