How to become a productive knowledge worker

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

It may come as a surprise to some people (though not all), but there is currently a high demand to learn the Thai language among people in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The trend was noted in Matichon by Sompong Jitradab of Chulalongkorn

Bangkok Post

University’s education faculty in a research study on preparing human resources for the planned initiation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.

The implication of demand for Thai-language skills among our neighbours is there will be higher competition in the labour market when the AEC is formed. A threat to Thai manual labourers will be inevitable when foreign workers are prepared to earn less _ and perhaps work harder.

On the other hand, the AEC will open a potential flood of knowledge workers from other neighbouring countries, particularly those who have the advantage of English literacy. And as we have seen in recent reports, the terrible state of English skills in Thailand does not bode well for this country’s ability to thrive under the AEC.

What should Thai workers do?

1. Manual labourers have to upgrade their skills in order to become knowledge workers.

2. Ordinary knowledge workers should transform themselves into productive knowledge workers.

This is in line with the book Management Challenges for the 21st Century by Peter Drucker: “The most valuable assets of a 20th-century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.”

What do productive knowledge workers look like?

Mr Drucker defined six major factors determining knowledge-worker productivity:

- Knowledge worker productivity …

Full story from Bangkok Post at http://goo.gl/wR449