The Adecco Group Thailand has disclosed the results of Adecco Children Survey 2021 which gathered the opinions of 2,024 Thai children aged between 7-14 years old nationwide. According to the survey, Thai children have chosen ‘doctor’ as their No.1 dream job and also suggested 5 ideas about education. Meanwhile, ‘BLACKPINK’ has risen to the top as Thai kids’ favorite idol.
‘Doctor’ remains Thai children’s dream job whereas YouTuber and actor/ singer become hot careers of the year.
Based on the results of the dream job survey this year, the most-desired career among Thai kids is doctor since they would like to treat patients and help others. Teacher is the second-most popular occupation. Other hot careers this year include YouTuber and actor/ singer which rank 3rd and 4th respectively as kids voiced that these careers entertain and delight people. As for actor/singer, it had never reached Top 5 before and this could be because, nowadays, actors and singers are constantly promoted and showed up on YouTube, the main media that children are most exposed to, enabling the career to gain a higher score this year. Ranking 5th is police officer.
Thai kids view ‘K-POP singers’ and ‘YouTubers’ as their idols while ‘BLACKPINK’ is crowned as No. 1 kid’s idol
As for the results of Thai kids’ idol survey this year, it has been discovered that ‘BLACKPINK’ receives the highest score. This band has gained popularity among Thai youths due to the band members’ outstanding singing and dancing abilities plus their pretty looks. The most loved member of the band is Lisa or Lalisa Manoban, the only Thai member who is admired by the fans not only for her excellence at dancing and rapping, but also for her patience, effort, and gratitude. Ranking 2nd is Kaykai Salaider, the YouTuber with the highest number of followers in Thailand and the ex-champion from last year, followed by ‘BTS,’ the Korean boy band whose song has just reached the top of the Billboard chart. The children voiced that BTS is the inspiration that encourages them to study. The famous game caster/ YouTuber Pang “Zbing Z.” who has been in the top list for 4 years in a row comes in 4th place. As for the 5th place, Name “MNJ TV,” a Free Fire game caster, is a rising star who has made it to the Top 5 list for the first time.
Thai kids like to use technology both for studying and playing – YouTube: the most influential media for kids
The Adecco Children Survey 2021 demonstrates that Thai children like to use technology. When they need to search for knowledge outside the classroom, they usually do the research via the internet using Google and YouTube. In their spare time, they will use technology to play games, watch YouTube, and socialize on social media. The social media that are most accessed by 7-to-14-year-old Thai kids are YouTube (94%), Facebook (80%), Line (74%), TikTok (73%), Instagram (50%) and Twitter (26%). YouTube remains the most popular media in every year of survey, whereas TikTok has become another favorite platform for kids as it has been gaining more and more popularity according to the survey in the last 2 years.
When asked about online studying during the Covid-19 outbreak, 96% of Thai children said that they attended online classes while the rest of 4% did not due to the lack of equipment and internet. 52% indicated that they liked online classes since they did not have to commute to school and wake up early. Besides, they could study anywhere and if they did not understand something, they were able to re-watch that part. Studying from home also helped them stay safe from the epidemic. On the contrary, 46% of children did not like online studying as they felt like they did not understand the lessons and could not ask questions. There were no activities and they did not get to meet their friends which made them feel bored. Some students faced an unstable network connection issue as well.
Thai kids propose 5 ideas to improve education: ‘adjust curriculum - reduce school hours - use fun teaching methods”
During the survey with Thai children between the ages of 7 and 14, the kids expressed interesting opinions in various topics. For most of them, what they wanted in terms of education was the improvement of Thai curriculum to make it up-to-date in order to keep up with the changing social and global contexts. The curriculum should be more diverse to suit the preferences and aptitudes of each kid. Teaching and learning should be organized through activities or field trips more often instead of studying in class only. Additionally, Thai children hoped to learn happily as they proposed the ideas of reducing school hours, increasing play time, adding extra activities, and improving teachers’ quality so that they are better at teaching in a fun way by making use of new technologies such as the gamification technique or the use of AR/VR. They also wanted teachers to pay attention to, understand, and accept the differences between each kid in terms of physical appearances, mental conditions, and slow-fast learning paces in order to adjust their teaching style accordingly.
To develop Thai kids, it is necessary to have a broad vision to see the world market and focus on equipping children with the world’s sought-after skills, Adecco Executive suggests.
“In the past, Thai education focused on giving knowledge to children and developing workers for the industrial sector. These days, however, we are living in the digital era when the world citizens are all connected. Changes happen much faster than before with an exponential growth. Thus, if we talk about education today, we have to look further. Thai kids these days must be equipped with the skills that the world desires in order to survive in the modern world. Language skills, especially English and Chinese, digital skills, and social skills such as communication or collaboration skills will be even more important than before. At the same time, teaching and learning must encourage kids to analyze things themselves, not just to learn by heart anymore because knowledge becomes outdated so quickly these days. For this reason, we have to instill in Thai children the eagerness to learn and the ability to search for knowledge and study by themselves,” said Tidarat Kanchanawat, Country Director, The Adecco Group Thailand.
“As revealed by the Adecco Children Survey this year, we can see that Thai children have their own ideas and are familiar with technology. These are good basic characteristics of Gen Z kids which can be further developed. In Adecco’s point of view, developing children to become talents that meet organization’s needs for both present and in the future would require 5 values which we are using as our organization core values. These values are: 1) Passion for work: The educational procedure should encourage kids to discover their own abilities and aptitudes; 2) Responsibility: We must instill in children responsibilities both for themselves and for their society; 3) Entrepreneurial mindset: The new generation should be equipped with creativity. They should be able to analyze problems and find a way to create innovations to solve such problems. Besides, they ought to have good knowledge and understanding of business as well as brevity to confront and deal with possible changes; 4) Team spirit: At work, collaborating with other people is inevitable. Therefore, the interpersonal skill and teamwork skill are also crucial and 5) Empathy or the ability to understand other people’s feelings: This is the skill that AI cannot imitate, and it will become a much sought-after skill in the future since it is essential for designing innovations which can fulfill customers’ needs and enhance team collaboration."
