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We provide course guidance consulting to young people

Tien-Vietnam, Mook-Thailand, Wai-Myanmar, Bee-Laos, Nisha-Malaysia, Chareya-Cambodia, Booyah- Japan

IATSS Forum Batch 57 Spring 2017

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... 3

1. Findings from group discussions ............................................................................................................ 4

2. Definition of a Sustainable Community ................................................................................................. 5

3. Key Learnings ......................................................................................................................................... 6

4. Our problem statement ............................................................................................................................ 8

5. Why is the Right Track Program? ........................................................................................................ 16

6. What the Right Track can offer young people? .................................................................................... 19

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 21

Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................... 22

 

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Executive Summary Vietnamese population is lacking of access to skills development and education information for youth. If we can provide the solution to these problems, we will have an increased productivity for the 55% of the labor force. This in turn will result in building up of our three main pillars of sustainable development which are economy, environment and society.

Proposal

To address the above problem, we propose the followings:

Youth Camp to help young people discover themselves in terms of strength, weaknesses and ability.

Youth Empowerment Workshops to equip young people with the right skills.

Education Fair to provide information to the students and their parents to make right decision in selecting the right education path.

Course Selection Guidance in which the professional education consultants will discuss and advise the students on the options available for academic, vocational and alternative tertiary education pathways.

Supporting Activities provides young people with online platform to register, take personality and aptitude tests while providing them information through newsletters. This platform will also host our e-guidebook, program schedule and Parent-to-Parent support group information.

Recommendation

This pilot program will run for 12 months. If the evaluation show that we’re successful, we will consider to design the implementation over the next 13 years to coincide with the 2030 SDGs period. For this program to be a success, we will need to leverage on the strength of the IATSS forum alumni and later the IATSS members.

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1. Findings from group discussions The IATSS Forum program has exposed participants to various lectures, case studies and field studies to explore the different themes that contribute to sustainable community design.

Over the initial 2 Group Study sessions many learning points were discussed and patterns slowly emerged; new well maintained infrastructure and use of technology to enhance quality of life were observed to be an outcome of a self-regulating society who have pride in their profession and mutual respect for all. These features have a deeper supporting structure of the Japanese discipline of leaving it better for the next person, a sense of responsibility for future generations and an embedded human and nature connection as seen at the shrines which influences their eagerness to apply bottom up approaches when faced with challenges. Another key success factor we observed was how the proactive communities and organizations received support from their local government and town councils which in return encouraged them to invest in their communities even more.

In Group Study 3, the ASEAN context was analyzed. Many socioeconomic problems were uncovered across Cambodia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand Vietnam and Japan. A few main factors like the lack of community support, low common ethics and values, as well as low quality of education were identified as the general cause of rampant corruption, lack of respect for non-white-collar-workers and lack of priority for quality education.

Group

Study 1

Group

Study 2

Group

Study 3

Group

Study 4

Group

Study 5

New infrastructure, technology and high quality of life 

Inter stakeholder synergy, Bottom up approach and culture as a foundation of development

Current socioeconomic problems: Lack of Community Support, low ethics and  quality of education   

Root cause analysis of  low quality of education, clarifying problem statement and developing model  

To empower young people to select the best choice for their interest, talent and future career path. 

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Group Study 4 was dedicated to a Root Cause Analysis to clarify the earlier mention attitudes, identify a project that could disrupt these socioeconomic problems, develop a model that is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and applicable to a specific ASEAN country. Replicability, leveraging on IATSS Alumni and members as well as clear impact were parameters of this project.

In Group Study 5 our project was set to empower young people to select the best choice for their interest, talent and future career path which would lead to a sense of wellbeing, stable income, job security and ability to contribute back towards the development of a sustainable communities.

After sharing our initial ideas with the other groups, pitching at the midterm presentation and taking the given feedback into consideration we were able to refine our project to address the lack of information which traps young people in education pathways not suitable for their interest, skills and ability.

2. Definition of a Sustainable Community

There are many definitions and methods for communities to attain a sustainable future. At its core, sustainability of a community depends on creating and maintaining economic and environmental health while promoting social equity.

Through field studies to Toba, Kamishima, Kirakuen, Noda North and Regulus, we realized that these local organizations take the initiative and responsibility to invest in their communities through their focus areas. Through this bottom up approach, we realized these organizations gain recognition from local government for their good work and become models of good practice in their communities.

These organizations engage citizens and institutions in applying sustainability principles of acknowledging all members of the society old and differently able, create value from synergy of existing assets through intergenerational exchange and sharing of heritage, create new models of economic activity and collaborate with non-traditional partners. All these organizations are aligned to the national issues of aging society, population and economic decline, and utilizing resources while ensuring future availability. In our observation this type of organizational attitudes are generally more successful and attract both very dynamic human resources and become beacons in their communities.

Among core values expressed by the local government are acknowledging organizations which provide added value services that build resilience within communities, engage community members in on going activities to foster the culture of collaboration and are transparent in their operations. The synergy of local government and organizations improve over time through continuous discovery, rediscovery, and reinvention as they learn more about the impacts of their actions. Together these communities track both performance and outcomes, are conscious of unintended consequences, and are able to modify strategies based on observed results. The value of sustainable community development resides in the ability to self-regulate, facilitate action and innovate based on the local uniqueness while participating on broader national level goals, UNESCO (1997).

After this period of observation, we strongly believe “A sustainable community is one that is economically, environmentally, and socially inter-connected. It meets challenges through integrated solutions, manages its human, natural, and financial resources to meet current needs while ensuring equitable availability for future generations.”

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3. Key Learnings

3.1 Education is the key for sustainable development

“Education is the key to reduce poverty, to increase gender equality, to create resilient, equity, healthy and sustainable societies, to foster peace and increase economic competitiveness and global prosperity. Education is one of the most critical investments we should make, to develop human capital.” Nelson Mandela

We gain understanding of mental models on education, ethics, equity and equality from Prof. Kitamura's lecture on education. He highlights that education is the key that will allow many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved. In order to achieve high quality of education, access to quality education should be equitably provided to all persons regardless of their gender, background or personal characteristics. It is important more than ever to equip young people with a global citizenship and community based mindset. Education provides an understanding that we are interconnected both as citizens of a global community and in our challenges to achieve equality.

The short comings of the education system lay in the mismatch between higher education opportunities, labor market demand and societal pressure for young people to apply themselves in specific careers. A critical flaw in the method and function of education assessment system which focus on quantity of A’s rather than quality of learning of the young person. These leads us to ask ourselves "what can we do to empower youth as well as help them to discover their talent and fulfill what they're lacking of?"

3.2 Bottom-up approach and community bond

In Kamishima, we met with an independent tour company, teachers, primary school students and their parents who are a part of a student centered learning project. Students participate in an afterschool program to learn about their island and its activities as a method to capture oral history, connect with their place and develop their interpersonal skills. The Shimakko Guide or student guides have been successful in creating an intergenerational collaboration involving local businesses and culture. This program was established 10 years ago by the teacher with assistance of the tour company who co-developed the modules to engage primary school students in creating value from existing assets in their community.

At the heart of this successful project is the learner centered learning approach. Students are encouraged to think and do by themselves while receiving supports and feedback from parents, teachers and tourists (customers). Both kids and adults can learn from each other and involve in community design. The activity helped children to discover their strength and weakness and also how to improve their skills. They have a passion and motivation in learning. They knew what they want to be in the future and they love their hometown so much. This field study inspired us a lot, on the importance of dream and family influences.

We realized that a bottom-up approach which begun from community needs is one of key success factors besides community involvement which foster bond.

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3.3 Multi-stakeholder partnerships for the successful implementation of SDGs

Through the Environment and Sustainable Asia seminar, we were exposed to the importance of partnerships and collaboration towards sustainable development. Encouraging contribution from business, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia and others, will help communities increase the effectiveness of their existing and future development efforts. New multi-stakeholder partnerships designed to achieve SDGs should focus at how targets under one goal might affect those under other goals or how individual targets could serve multiple goals. Partnerships should strive to enable greater integration and synergies across many goals.

Toba and Kobe field studies are best practices on stakeholder collaborations, Kaito Yumi club is a private entity which invest in the community, supported by government and local citizens, balancing both economic and cultural preservation. In Kobe, communities, businesses and NGO are dedicated at recovering for natural disasters by Building Back Better, this was a strategy to recover from the great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. Kirakuen, a private elderly care facility collaborates with NPOs, social welfare entity and private association. Without strong collaboration, mutually benefiting programs and common sustainable community design based projects are not possible.

3.4 Fostering ethics and values that build trust

Over a 2-day visit at Moku-moku farm we experienced and observed how an agriculture based enterprise has successfully built trust from their social conscious culture. Moku moku farm has been developed to become an agritourism attraction by combining their farmer market, bakery, restaurants, jersey cow and mushroom farm and several hands on activities like rice planting, bread making and farm animal barn. It provides places that everyone can come, participate and be happy together. The farmers market and cured meat shop extenuate the value of products through storytelling and providing variety of items. The self-regulating and reporting of chemical fertilizer use by vegetable farmers was one of the most impressive part of the visit. Farmers declare their fertilizer us voluntarily – this requires being ethical and honest which leads to the customers found as reason to go.

Among the learning points discussed, we recognized that talent is the heart of sustainable development, especially the essential role of young people. We, hence, decided to conduct a project to empower young people to maximize their contribution to the community. Starting by researching issues that youth in ASEAN countries and Japan have been facing to help resolve, we shared a common problem that high school students in our countries have difficulties in finding appropriate education alternatives that can serve their future career path due to lack of information. We then came up with the idea to equip information and skills to the students in order to assist them to make right decision in their further education.

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4. Our problem statement In Vietnam, Young people are graduating with multiple degrees of low quality and are saturating the market with nonviable candidates with low motivation. They lack the essential life skills and professional capabilities to select their education pathway due to insufficient information and no constructive family support.

Our team conducted a root cause analysis to identify how to address attitudinal and skill gap issues.

Young people in Vietnam are facing a dilemma when applying to tertiary education as

Young people lack the supporting mechanism: i. Funding to pursue the education of choice 

ii. Lack guidance and information about education options, their abilities and preferences

iii. Family, community, infrastructure for education opportunities in the new job market

  Young people are trapped by

i. No motivation / initiative to explore education options ii. Are heavily influenced / directed by parents to commit to a certain 

education option.   iii. Are easily influenced by social pressure to pursue a certain academic 

program

Ethics and values of a sustainable community i. Young people will have a sense of wellbeing and security fostering trust, pride and a sense of place (take responsibility for common wellbeing) ii. Increases the local talent pool and fulfills global Human Resource 

demand  iii. Every person is contributing towards the economy  

What is

happening

Why this is

happening?

Why this is

happening?

What

happens is

we achieve

our goal?

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On average, Vietnamese aged between 16 to 25 account for 35.96% of the population and 55.5% of the labor force, meaning that significant proportion of the Vietnamese workforce are labeled as “young” (The Centre for Labor Market Studies). There is, however, an apparent mismatch between the needs of industry and the skills development offered by Vietnamese education. Reports and media articles have figured out some of the root causes leading to this phenomenon, including (1) inadequacy between market demand and skills-trained labor; (2) lack of soft skills among a majority of fresh university graduates; and (3) insufficiency of information for education option.

4.1. Vocational Training (VT) is yet to be considered as an alternative for post-secondary education According to the State University, “VT is training for a specific career or trade, excluding the professions. Vocational training focuses on practical applications of skills learned, and is generally unconcerned with theory or traditional academic skills. A large part of the education in vocational schools is hands-on training. Vocational training thus provides a link between education and the working world. It is usually provided either at the high school level or in a post-secondary trade school” (Doak, 2000). VT develops craftsmanship, practical experience and practical problem-solving (Education International, 2009). A report (2015) by the General Department of Vocational Training, Vietnam Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Welfare showed that only 10% of high school graduates applied to VT courses, the rest went for universities and colleges (Nguyen Cao). Stemming from an agricultural base, Vietnamese traditionally appreciate people with high degrees which established an invisible social pressure on the students. They are expected by the society and families to become professionals instead of skilled workers who are supposed to gain less respect from others, struggle to find good jobs and earn ill-paid salary. Therefore, going to vocational training schools never place among top priority in their course consideration. Another report from World Bank (2014) also highlighted this problem as shown in the below chart (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Enrolments in university and colleges exploded over the last decade, but less so in in post‐secondary vocational training 

institutions

Meanwhile, a research from General Statistics Office of Vietnam points out that there is an increasing demand from the Vietnam’s labor markets for skilled workers to serve the industrialization, modernization and international integration process, in which the processing and manufacturing industry plays leading role. Nevertheless, only 9% of skilled workers are working in this industry (Figure 2) and only 10.2% (5.4 million) of the total number of jobs nationwide are skilled workers. Due to the severity of shortages for skilled manpower, skilled employees is predicted to be a future demand from the Vietnam market (Table 1).

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Figure 2 Skilled labor by industry, 2014

Table 1 Responses for demand in the next 5 years 

Together with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, data from International Labor Organization (2014) proved the largest absolute demand is generally for low- and medium-skill occupations (Figure 3). In Viet Nam, the fastest growth is for other craft and related workers and heavy truck and bus drivers (Figure 4).

Source: World Bank, 2013 Source: World Bank, 2013

 

Figure 3 Projected ten occupations with highest 

demand under the AEC scenario, by absolute change, 

2010‐25 (thousand) 

 

Figure 4 Projected ten occupations with highest 

demand under the AEC scenario, by percentage 

change, 2010‐25 (per cent)

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The market will need to be ready for new skills which may be required as a result of new technologies and working methods (Youth Employment in Vietnam), as well as of raising standards of regional integration. This was a particular issue for large companies (1001+ employees) and state-owned enterprises, over 80% of whom were aware that they may require access to employees with new skills sets in the next five years. This may suggest that state-owned companies have more anxieties that they may not be able to meet future skills requirements. In addition, the report pointed out that the largest organizations were far more likely (58%) than the smallest (24%) to recruit young people into manual jobs and jobs requiring low to medium skills. As such, contrast to the most common belief, young employees equipped themselves with VT have more opportunities to get jobs at big companies/ organizations.

Figure 5 Share of respondents who agree that skills of secondary, tertiary and vocational graduates match enterprise needs, 2013 (per cent)

The chart shows that around half the respondents felt that these met their business needs, in terms of vocational education and training systems. In fact, to invest in better skills training for workers and innovate/ increase quality of products and services are proved to be a strategy to foster business competitiveness (Figure 6).

Figure 6 Strategies to increase competitiveness by ASEAN enterprises, 2013 (responses in per cent)

As the same time, wages of skilled workers would be improved in the context of ASEAN integration which creates more opportunities for students to receive VT abroad with better quality, both of their workers and the skills they produced, and find jobs overseas, particularly those relevant to fast growing sectors (Figure 7).

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Figure 7 Change in wages under the AEC scenario relative to the baseline, 2025 (per cent)

With regard to recruitment, qualifications are not the top priority of employers, according to the report of Youth Employment in Vietnam. Performance and skills are demonstrated to be more important factors (Table 2).  

Table 2 Employee selection 

Source: The Center for Labor Market Studies, n/d.

Currently in Vietnam, to meet the demand of students urging for higher education degrees, many new universities are established without high quality education. As a result, graduates from these universities are not qualified enough to join the professional labor market leading to unemployment. Whilst, as aforementioned, shortage of skilled labor in many fields, especially in industry, is large. A consideration to choose VT as a preparation for future career with various job opportunities is supposed to be helpful in this context. 4.2. Modernization and economic reformation lead to changes in employment pattern towards increasing in non-agricultural sectors which require more advanced skills. Skills gap and shortage are concerned to be important. Since the Doi Moi economic reforms in 1986, Vietnamese labor market have changed to be more industrialized countries by a shift to more skill-intensive jobs. This situation affected changes in the type of work that people do and the skills they use in their workplace. Increasing demand in professional and technical workers were observed as a trend in urban Vietnam while the demand for agricultural workers

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have been declining as seen in Figure 8. The evidence shows that the employment in those occupations has been growing especially in young generation workers. The transition into jobs requiring more advanced cognitive and behavioral skills has already begun with the youngest generation of labor market entrants. Figure 9 shows that among labor market participants aged 25 to 34, appears to have been a sharp increase in the fraction employed in professional and technical occupations in urban areas and have also expanded to account for 7% of jobs among younger rural workers.

Figure 8 Long‐term structural change in East Asia ‐ predictors for Vietnam?

Figure 9 Employment in technical and professional occupations has been growing for the youngest cohort

The non-routine and non-repetitive jobs expanded between 1998 and 2010 as shown in Figure 10. The fraction of workers doing routine tasks and using manual skills continues to be high. However, the fraction of population in jobs using analytical and interpersonal skill sets has increased over time in urban Vietnam while the fraction of those using manual skills has declined. This trend emphasizes that although work using manual skills continues to be in demand, a gradual shift in the fraction of jobs that use analytical and interpersonal skill sets have occurred. Besides increasing in market demand, these skills are in highly valued as signaled by a high wage returns relative to manual skills.

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Figure 10 Trends in the nature of tasks in Vietnam's urban labor market

Demanding jobs in Vietnam's future require workers to have more advanced skills such as performing increasingly complex tasks that require workers to be able to solve problems, think critically, learn on the job and to be responsive to shifting needs. They also require employees to have strong social and behavioral skills e.g. working in teams, communicate with others, have positive job attitudes and supervision others.

Figure 11 A shortage of workers with adequate skills is a key obstacle to firm activity

Results from STEP employer survey reported a shortage of workers with adequate skills as a significant problems to their activity as shown in Figure 11. Approximately 80% of employers stated skills gap and skills shortage are the main obstacle when they were trying to hire professionals and technicians. Due to under-qualified worker, only one-quarter of working youth are able to find formal employment, where wages are 45% higher than earnings in informal employment. Another report from World Bank survey of employers identified gaps in job- related technical skills, as well as in cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking, and core skills such as teamwork and communication. Results from those surveys also provided information on which skills are in demand and used in the urban labor market. Employers place the most emphasis on job-related skills including technical skills and the ability to solve problems and think critically. They also consider leadership, creative, team working, ability to work independently, numeracy, foreign language, literacy and time management skills as important. From the employee's perspective, adaptability to the changes in work environment is a crucial

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skill in the world of work. Moreover, social and behavioral skills are also needed e.g. conscientiousness (including responsibility, self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, self-organization and motivation), emotional stability and openness to experiences. 4.3. Lacking of quality information and disconnection between actors are leading causes of under-qualified labor

Skills shortages and gaps are indicators of a dynamic economy. The real point is whether the education and training system is equally dynamic in adjusting quickly to supply graduates with the technical skills. Current Vietnam's skill development system is suffering from disconnects between main actors: employers, students and universities and vocational schools as shown in Figure 12. Disconnection is a result from imperfect and asymmetric information among stakeholders, their inadequate capacity and weak incentives to make good use of information.

 

Figure 12 Skills development is not working as a system of connected actors

Lacking of sound career guidance, reliable labor market information and statistics that could help them identify the current needs of employers and the skills that must be cultivated to improve job prospects are the reasons why many students lacked of required skills. Without those quality information, students cannot make good decisions on which school or university and which study program to choose as well as education and training providers cannot make good choices on the programs to develop and offer. Better information on graduates' job placements can help future students choose the best schools, universities and programs and provide an incentive to universities to focus on quality. They could also benefit from apprenticeships which link education and training institutions with the private sector. Such systems are underdeveloped and inadequately resourced, hampering the opportunities for students to complement classroom knowledge with practical, on-the-job experience.

Strengthened collaboration with all partners can help bridging the information gaps. In Vietnam, such partnerships already exist between leading firms and universities but there's a need to learn from this experience and help spreading them widely. However, roles of central and local government are still poor. Government should play a role of facilitator by helping to ensure a better information flow between all the actors, to address capacity constraints including financing capacity and to set the right incentives by freeing up universities to partner more effectively with businesses.

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5. Why is the Right Track Program? School counselling in Vietnam is deficient. Not many schools, even colleges and universities, have an official counsellor to help provide academic, career, college access/ admission, and social-emotional competencies to students and their parents. Normally, head teachers will informally play this role, but it is challenging to sufficiently guide around 50 students at the same time besides their main duty of teaching. Moreover, the teachers themselves are not experts in this field to equip their students with proper information. There are education fairs organized yearly by the Vietnam National University and some other universities/ colleges. Nevertheless, they are just one-day events hold only once a year mostly promoting the schools to attract students to apply.

Our project goes beyond that. We aim to empower young people from 16 to 18 years old with knowledge and skills to make right decisions for their education and their future careers. To reach the objective, we will have the students go through a unique program including youth camps, skill development sessions, course selection guidance and supporting activities which is mutually beneficial to stakeholders involved. Although this type of training breaks the traditional training style, it offers students a chance to connect theories with empirical actions, at the same time help motivate other stakeholders to support the students’ choice for their education.

5.1. IATSS Alumni

IATSS alumni differentiate us from other guiding/ consulting programs. They are unique and special because all members are from various backgrounds (professions, ages, cultures, etc.) and have strong network across ASEAN countries and Japan. They can contribute their knowledge, skills, experience and creative ideas to local staff running Right Track Project for better future of Vietnam's youth.

They can work with local alumni and trainers to discuss new methods of running all courses as well as demonstrate how to implement it. Moreover, there are many opportunities for them to join our program such as

1. Youth camp: young members can participate as a staff whereas senior staff can be guest speakers and mentors.

2. Youth empowerment course: all members can be guest speakers, delivering their success stories and experiences to inspire participants. They can also promote IATSS forum and IATSS alumni activities to our participants as they're part of community and potential young generation leaders in the future.

3. Education plan consultation and education fair: IATSS alumni members can provide information on education options and scholarship within ASEAN region and in Japan. And they can advise students on how to choose the right study choices. Japanese company in Vietnam can also join these activities in order to advise them about career options.

4. Parent to parent forum: IATSS alumni can participate in this part to help parents gain more understanding in their children's career choices. And they can advice them to have mutual understanding and encourage them to choose their future choices which match with their children's talent.

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5. Website: The alumni can post and see all information on website. They can see participants' progress and what they have learned so far.

5.2. Youth Camp

Youth Camp’s objective is to help students discover themselves, i.e. their strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes and skills that match them with their future education choice. However, the camp will make no difference without the team building challenges. There will be situations the students have to leverage on teamwork to solve, through which they learn about soft skills and attitude helpful for decision making (Figure 13).

 

Figure 13 Root causes analysis

5.3. Parents to Parents Forum

This Forum is created as a sharing platform in which parents share their experience about understanding their children and assisting them in choosing their education alternatives. There will be offline meetings and an online group (Facebook community) to support parents to connect with the children.

5.4. Cross Country Education Opportunities

IATSS Forum alumni come from different countries are a great resource to provide insightful information to participants about new education opportunities overseas. They can respond to learning needs of each

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individual through our comprehensive and coherent support covering from higher education to literacy and non-formal education.

5.5. How can Right Track solve the problem?

Our project aims to deliver skill development and youth career path consultation through various program activities. Our project will also create a sharing platform in which parents share their experiences about understanding their children and assisting them in choosing their education alternatives. There will be offline meetings and an online group (Facebook community) to support parents to connect with the children.

5.6. How to mobilize resources?

5.6.1. Venue: A room, building or office can be offered on a part or full time basis.

5.6.2. Finance: By using our creativity, we can organize various events and actions that both raise financial resources and increase public interest in our work. Financial resources can be raised from local citizens, business, local authorities, or other in a variety of forms and through many means, including:

❖ Financial resilience by generating revenue from sale of eGuide books, Advertisements on our website and participation fees

❖ Grants from local authorities or other community organizations ❖ Corporate sponsorship ❖ Grant funding for youth development activities

5.6.3. People: There are some ways to mobilize human resource to conduct the project, including:

❖ IATSS academics and IATSS Forum Alumni from across ASEAN ❖ Holding regular meetings with representatives of local governments, businesses, institutions, other

NGOs, media and other social leaders to inform them about our activities and objectives ❖ Volunteers:

● Individuals offering talent, knowledge, and administrative work ● Government staffs working for our program to fulfill community service requirement

5.6.4. Materials:

❖ Develop physical collaterals and e content which can be developed over time. ❖ NGOs offer communications materials to be recycled or modified for other uses.

5.6.5. Information:

Savvy use of social media can attract youth and their parents who can easily access online resources. Media coverage and distribution of information via the Youth Union are some ways to raise public awareness of our organization and our goals. Creating programs around the visits of prominent IATSS academic members will lend credibility to our program and allow for dialogue on emerging trends. For

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6. What the Right Track can offer young people? 6.1. Youth Camp

Youth camp is a holistic and transformative experience which blends IQ and EQ through interpersonal development activities such as group challenges, conditions to apply communication skills and introspective personal reflection giving insights on their ability or gaps. This type of session is designed to expose young people to new ways of thinking in achieving a common goal. Working with their peers in cooperative type activities is a key method to develop trust and interdependence. Through each activity and challenge young people further develop their critical thinking and flexibility as they observe new ways to solve problems. Structured reflection on activities and interaction is designed to help individuals identify gaps, build self-confidence and adaptability. Intermingling with IATSS alumni and facilitators during the youth camp will provide young people with good role models which can influence them with sustainable community ethics and values of global citizenship.

An aptitude assessment's main purpose or function is "not to measure what has been learned, but what can be learned" (Karmel & Karmel, 1978, p. 219). As such, they are designed to predict students' future learning, behavioral, or performance outcomes. However, because it is impossible to isolate aptitude from past learning experiences, aptitude tests may indirectly measure what has been learned as well as what can be learned (Borg & Gall, 1989; Gage & Berliner, 1988; Karmel & Karmel, 1978; McMillan, 2001; National Academy Press, 2001; Weber, 1991).

Aptitude tests aim to measure specific kinds of abilities across a wide range of academic and occupational fields. Among the most commonly used aptitude tests are those measuring verbal, mathematical, spatial, mechanical, and clerical aptitudes or abilities (Borg & Gall, 1989; Gage & Berliner, 1988).

6.2. Youth Empowerment Courses

Youth empowerment courses are skill development workshops for young people to develop professional capabilities over time. These short courses are practical independent workshops conducted by IATSS alumni and their network over a 12month period. During these workshops a segment will be reserved to introduce IATSS Forum and why young people should apply. Short Courses consist of the following six courses;

6.2.1. Conflict Resolution:

Conflict is normal when working with others, young people tend to me more emotional and may lose valuable learning opportunities should they not be able to resolve conflict when working in teams. This workshop will combine scenario based learning and participants will learn from this course how to constructively respond and manage conflicts.

6.2.2. Critical Thinking & Decision Making:

Critical thinking a disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from observation, and reasoning which can be represented in tangible data and weightage. Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, way of thinking. Exposing young people to this skill will assist them when selecting a course for their tertiary education which will have multiple aspects to take into consideration.

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6.2.3. Communication skills: Objectives of this course is to learn how to overcome communication skill gaps earlier identified when the participant took their personality profile test. This allows the workshop to cater to individual needs while providing a big picture on the different communication styles, methods of communicating effectively and why it is important when working in big groups of people from different nationalities for example in the ASEAN context.

6.2.4. Presentation skills: Presentation skills are methods of delivering effective and engaging presentations to a variety of audiences. These skills cover a variety of areas such as the structure presentations, the design of your slides, the tone of your voice and the body language you convey. This is a lifelong skill that will help students through their education period and into their professional career.

6.2.5. Negotiation skills: Negotiation is a method by which people settle can differences and achieve mutually benefiting goals. Participants will learn how to prepare for discussions, clarifying goals, developing tangible feedback.

6.2.6. Facilitation skills: is a good foundational skill to help a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan how to achieve these objectives. Participants learn how to remain "neutral" position in the discussion while navigating the group towards a common goal. This skill will help young people throughout their education period.

6.3. Courses Selection Consultation

Courses Selection consultation sessions are conducted as an Educational Fair twice a year in collaboration with education institutions both academic and vocational. Participant can gain the opportunity to identify their education course and institution options and to know loans and scholarship options in the country and ASEAN. In this event, participants can take a Mock interview. In addition, Parents of participant can join this event to participate in the Parent 2 Parent Forum. This Forum connects experienced parents with parents that have children that are new participants. They provide one-to-one support that includes phone calls, emails and person-to-person meetings. The parent mentors also work with the Parent Coaching Courses to help find resources and other support services for new parents.

6.4. Supporting Activities

Other than Youth camp, Youth Empowerment Courses and Courses Selection Consultation, we have other Supporting Activities which are Web support, eGuide Book, Social Media and parent support group.

6.4.1. Web Support: our web support has contents which help young people to choose their career. Our web support is for not only participants of our activities such as Youth Camp, but also for young people who want to get information about their course choice. Everyone can take the personality test and aptitude test through our web page. Personality test is helpful to know yourself such as who you are or what you are interested in. Aptitude test is helpful to discover your potential such as talent and ability. You can use personality and aptitude test results for considering your course as a reference. In addition, we provide information related to their career such as university/college and vocational school and private companies. Website is also used as a tool for evaluation our whole activities. When someone wants to join our activities, we ask them to register through Internet and provide accounts for our web service.

6.4.2. eGuide Book: we publish eGuide Book through the Internet for the young people. Objective of the eGuide Book is to know how to find their course and how to select career in the new economy, to reflect

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on your personality and aptitude. eGuide Book can guide students to be successful and fulfilling future through contents in the book step by step. This eGuide Book can be a tool of advertisement and one of the revenue sources for our project. The contents of the eGuide Book are also provided through our web service.

6.4.3. Social Media: we provide social media communication (Facebook page) to interact with users, to help them share their thoughts about career paths and to easily receive advices for their career from experts/ professionals. The contents will be updated for new possibilities. IATSS Forum Alumni sharing can be beneficial for the page since they come from different backgrounds, professionals, countries that can provide opportunities for the students to know relevant cross-border career paths.

6.4.4. Parent support group: parents have the strongest influence to young people's career choice. Some of them can provide positive effects to their children, but at the same time, they can also influence their children's career choice in a negative way. That's how Parent to Parent Forum appears in our project. Parent to Parent Forum is the opportunity to share the parents’ perspectives and experience about supporting their children to choose education options. The offline Forum are held in twice a year at Courses Selection Consultation events, while the online community is available on our social media page as an open platform for parents to join and share their experience.

Conclusion We believe Right Track project has a great potential to shape new generations who can choose the right education option, right career path and hence contribute to build up sustainable societies. The main target of this project is young people from 16 to 18 years old who are about to make their choice to enroll in colleges or universities. We aim to empower them with understandings and skills needed to choose a study field that matches their capabilities and aptitude. During the project activities, our participants can discover themselves, enhance their skills and are able to communicate with their parents, who will also be assisted in order to support their children’s decisions. We hope to bring the students to the right track of future career and motivate them to accelerate a movement towards the sustainable society. As aforementioned, the uniqueness of this project is the IATSS Forum Alumni as a key partner. If we mobilize them as the special resource for our project, we can provide opportunities to learn about sustainability while considering their course/career choice.

Vietnam is chosen to conduct a pilot since this fast developing economy is in a great demand of young labors but youth are lacking of guidance for their education and career path. If the plan is successfully implemented, the model can be replicated in other ASEAN countries to empower young people across borders towards a sustainable community.

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Acknowledgement During the group study, our team faced many challenges for the improvement of our project. Before we started our project, we had sharing session in order to know everyone’s expertise as well as sharing ground rules and roles. We had a calendar for the whole group discussions such as who is the facilitator, secretariat, timekeeper, and presenter for the first day of our group study. We also created group messenger as a tool to share information and references.

Along the way of our group study, we had a lot of discussions regarding topics. From time to time, we change our group names and objectives as well as the target customer segments after presenting to other participants, IATSS staff and professors. This led us less time for the specific project. However, we did not lose motivation within our group. We try to encourage each other and think positively. In addition, we tried to improve our project from general objective to specific project that can implement to specific target groups.

We also faced with time management during our group study. From the beginning, we set the rule that we will break 10 minutes every 1 hour and be on time. However, some of the group studies, we did not have a break and we worked over time until midnight. Everyone seemed motivated and worked hard to achieve the project objectives. Moreover, we had different opinions and sometimes it is hard to express ideas exactly with what we were thinking. This led to long explanation and discussion. Sometimes, we got stressed and almost gave up our discussion since we worked for whole day and continued until night time and we ran out of ideas. Nevertheless, we still continued, we took short break, made fun of each other, listened to songs and ate snacks. We forgot our tiredness and stress. We also shared tasks and responsibilities to each other. We helped and gave comments to our tasks.

Besides these, we realized that teamwork is important to drive the group objectives. For the beginning, we seemed to value own ideas rather than pay more attention to other members. Active listening skills and facilitation skills didn’t implement much and consensus of the group seemed decreased. Sometimes, we did not talk to each other much. After whole days and nights of working together, we began to understand each other such as their expertise, social backgrounds, and experiences. We maximized used of our strength to fill in the project.

Everyone actively took part in the project. For instant, Ms. Chareya from Cambodia, shared workshop model from her IATSS alumni to the Youth Empowerment workshop in the project. Mook, from Thailand, was a very good facilitator when there is tension in the group study. She made fun and she also took part in drawing everyone ideas to pictures which helped us a lot in understanding of our team concepts. Moreover, BEE from Laos and Wai from Myanmar are very good facilitators within our group. They also shared a lot of good ideas on budgeting, marketing, monitoring and evaluation. To keep the group in the right track; Nisha was never tired to share her experiences, and participate in the flow of the project. She also did the slide presentations with a very interesting content and layout. Booya from Japan did not talk much in the group however he did more researches on references and data collection. He has never complained during the group studies. He tried to understand from ASEAN countries and shared his experiences and good practices in Japan. These helped us a lot in raising many good examples and case studies of our project. Last but not least, Tien from Vietnam, contributed a lot to the discussion. She tried her best to share ideas and experiences to other members. She helped us in writing a very good report and summarized the process each time of the group discussion so that we saved a lot of time for the next step.

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In short, everyone in the group took important role and contributed for the success of the projects. We tried our best to adjust and learnt from to each other. We have learnt to work together and respect everyone strengths and weakness. We think Group Study is one of the most important part in the IATSS that have shaped us to learn and work together and to achieve common goal.

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