Kalyanee Kongsomjit, a strong female leader in the Thai robotics and automation industry, has played a pivotal role in driving the organization forward, serving as a driving force behind Thai education.

Business and education, when discussed casually like this, may not seem like a direct connection. However, if we consider the various advantages the business sector possesses to enhance the education sector's ability to develop and produce quality personnel, the answer becomes clearer. Ultimately, the workforce the education sector produces must go to work in business or industry. Therefore, this is a key reason why the business sector should be elevated to a learning organization and play a greater role in supporting the education sector.

In addition to accepting student internships, which are practiced by virtually every organization, the business sector is expanding its support for the education sector. This initiative allows students and even faculty to learn about the organization's work processes, beyond mere visits or internships. This initiative could be a starting point for the business and education sectors to join forces and foster further collaboration in other forms that are more beneficial to the education sector. Upon closer analysis, the results of these positive collaborations ultimately benefit organizations, providing them with more qualified personnel to meet their specific needs.

To illustrate the aforementioned model and how the business sector's focus on supporting the education sector or the learning of people in society will yield positive returns for Thai society, we would like to cite an example of a learning organization that has built a business alongside its role in supporting the education sector in various forms, such as TKK Corporation Company Limited.

This commitment to building a learning organization, coupled with support for the education sector in all aspects, has been passed down as corporate culture by Ms. Kalyanee Kongsomjit, Chairwoman of TKK Corporation Co., Ltd. A strong female executive, she values lifelong learning no less than her business endeavors. In passing this DNA on to the organization, she has used herself as a role model, leading to successful results in almost every area.

Kalyanee Kongsomjit continues her commitment to creating a learning organization, serving as a wind beneath the wings of the Thai education sector.

Ms. Kalyanee Kongsomjit began by recounting her "luck" in family recognition of the importance of education, which provided her with the opportunity to study. This inspired her to share this "luck" and opportunity to create a quality workforce for Thai society.

“I grew up in a Chinese family, working as market vendors. We weren't wealthy, but my mother placed great importance on education. After I graduated with a bachelor's degree, she decided to send me to Australia to study. I still remember my mother repeatedly telling me that education would be a factor in elevating our family's financial status.”

"My parents didn't pursue higher education and had many children, but they still sent me to school, even though I'm their only daughter. Today, I work for my own company and earn an income to support myself and my family without hardship. This is proof that our family's focus on education is on the right track, and it can truly elevate our family's financial status."

"For me, after graduating, I had the opportunity to work for a leading Japanese organization. This allowed me to gain professional skills, communication skills, language skills, and IT and technology expertise. I loved it. Plus, I saw that IT, technology, and innovation were on the horizon, so I decided to pioneer this business first. With this in mind, I decided to establish TKK Corporation Co., Ltd., a distributor of industrial products and large machinery, targeting medium-sized SMEs."

“At that time, we had registered capital of 1 million baht, and we personally sought out clients, presented our work, made recommendations, and closed sales. I enjoyed the work, as I came from a sales background. It was during the company's inception that I personally taught English and computer skills to the employees.”

"At that time, new employees who joined us were usually vocational certificate graduates or graduates from provincial institutions who were passionate about their work. They might not have been very talented, but they had a keen interest in learning and adapting to the basics for their work. This made us happy to teach them. We continued to do so throughout the first three years of the company's establishment. Subsequently, we sought out teachers to teach employees various skills and sent them on further education."

“At one point, I opened my own academy, analyzing each employee’s potential to provide additional training in specific skills that will help them become more effective at their jobs.”

“And the results of doing so have shown that educating and encouraging employees to learn actually translates back into better performance. Since then, it's become part of our corporate DNA to prioritize education and continually equip our employees with the skills they need to succeed.”

Starting point: Join hands with the education sector to support Thai education in all aspects.

From the creation of the learning organization of TKK Corporation, it has expanded to support the Thai education sector with the intention of creating a cooperation network with various educational institutions of Ms. Kalyanee who has given an example to illustrate that

"As a learning organization, TKK ensures that when new products or products need to be tested before they are delivered to customers, we provide training and instruction on their use. New technologies are also introduced within the organization. This ensures that TKK employees are familiar with new technologies and have the practical skills to work with them."

"For example, when introducing RPA (Robot Processing Automation) technology to the business sector, TKK initially didn't hire a company to do it. Instead, we developed the system ourselves. Currently, we have 50 bots in use within the company. This is the starting point for our knowledge of this technology, and we're considering collaborating with the Human Resource Development Institute (MARA) to offer short-term training courses to outsiders interested in learning about this technology."

"Today, we can say that TKK is continuing to be a learning organization, continuously developing innovations and technologies. These are then implemented internally to demonstrate their effectiveness. Once they're effective, we're confident that other companies will also find similar benefits. We can teach them how to use them, not just sell them."

“In expanding cooperation with the education sector to develop personnel in robotics and automation, which are products and services in which TKK has expertise, we have developed a variety of products and services, including:

Being a speaker for educational institutions

Ms. Kalyanee, along with all TKK executives and staff, has served as a lecturer on various courses related to IT, technology, innovation, robotics and automation systems used in business and industry. Ms. Kalyanee has also served as a visiting lecturer, sharing her business experiences with university students.

Provide robots and automation systems to educational institutions for use in teaching and learning.

TKK Corporation has been a key supporter of the education sector nationwide, donating tools, robots, and automation systems to educational institutions for use in the teaching of students and faculty. This allows students to learn practical skills required for real-world work, enabling them to become familiar with innovations and technologies upon graduation and employment.

Hosting a robotics competition, automation system

TKK Corporation has been organizing the Innovedex robotics competition and training program for two consecutive years, even before the COVID-19 outbreak. Today, plans are underway to bring it back to life, providing a platform for youth across the country to compete, compete, and learn together about coding and creating robots and automation systems for various uses.

Elevate “interns” to work in challenging roles within the organization.

Enhancing the internship program with the concept of giving interns difficult tasks, giving them the opportunity to work with TKK engineers and sales departments. This allows students who come to intern at TKK to be enthusiastic, feel challenged, and enjoy learning about real work.

For example, interns are given the opportunity to travel to provinces throughout Thailand, including neighboring countries, to install robots alongside engineers. TKK engineers act as mentors and provide on-the-job training, providing students with the opportunity to learn in real-world work situations.

In the past, this practice resulted in a win-win situation: students learned and were ready to apply that knowledge to their work. The company also received effective results from its interns. Once the internship period ended and any students showed potential, the company hired them immediately. This benefited the company by gaining employees with skills that matched the positions and responsibilities.

Explore the plan to establish TKK Academy to drive the Thai education sector and develop personnel to meet target industries.

It can be seen that the approach to promoting and supporting the Thai education sector is almost parallel to TKK Corporation's business operations, which truly generates returns for the organization. Ms. Kalyanee provided additional perspectives on human resource development and updated information on future projects supporting the education sector, particularly the plan to establish TKK Academy, saying:

"As TKK executives, we are pleased with the results achieved through our commitment to establishing TKK as a learning organization. This DNA resides in all of our executives, who are role models for practitioners, who embrace new knowledge and continually strive to collaborate with other organizations. This DNA is also passed on to our employees, who absorb and follow these role models."

“Regarding support for the education sector, many people may now view this as a distant issue. As businesspeople, we must focus on sales. Learning, teaching, and education seem less relevant to us. But in reality, if the nation's education system is excellent and can produce a quality workforce, it will be a crucial component in fulfilling our business ecosystem.”

"Especially now, as the world faces a crisis of declining birthrates, which are expected to continue to decline, as birthrates decline, so too will fewer students graduating and fewer people seeking employment. We shouldn't just focus on producing graduates; we should also contribute to creating graduates who are ready to work immediately."

"TKK therefore adopts an on-site training approach for interns, providing them with the opportunity to work on-site. We view this as a win-win situation. In other words, interns contribute to the company's operations, generating revenue, while students gain practical skills and knowledge through real-world work. We see this as a reward that goes beyond simply donating supplies, but also provides learning opportunities for Thai youth."

"We believe this creates value beyond mere financial investment. It fosters and develops quality human resources, aligned with our current low birthrate. Therefore, we must develop this population into a quality workforce and nurture them to be capable of contributing to the business sector as quickly as possible. This is truly beneficial to the nation."

"Therefore, it's now very clear that the business sector must utilize education as a driving force to create business value. If the business sector doesn't join in today's efforts to develop people and the nation's workforce, it's certain that human resources issues will continue to trickle back to the business sector, such as recruiting people who don't align with their job positions and responsibilities."

“In the near future, TKK is looking to support the education sector in various ways, focusing on collaboration with various sectors. A key project we're planning is the establishment of the TKK Academy, which will bring the entire TKK Eco-system to life and provide more training to students, possibly through short-term courses.”

“For TKK Academy, we have developed a core curriculum focused on the TKK Ecosystem, which includes teaching AI knowledge, including AI voice, AI image, and all modern robots, including autonomous mobile robots, autonomous cars, and vehicles. We also cover the current trend of remote working, such as working using SCADA programs, as well as teaching about the Metaverse, AR, VR, 5G, and IoT. These are all technologies that people today need to use and learn. We have designed a curriculum that's easy to understand and can be applied in practice.”

“Furthermore, we plan to expand this into a competition for students to submit their ideas and innovations. The most creative ideas will be supported in the form of startups, with TKK providing mentorship and funding. This type of project has already begun with Cera Automation and Technology Co., Ltd., which supports Panyapiwat graduates and allows them to run their own businesses.”

"TKK will provide business mentorship from TKK's engineers and sales managers, who will oversee and advise you. We believe that these young people have true potential as startups, but may not yet be skilled at finding clients or managing finances. TKK will provide assistance, as TKK has over 60 chemical salespeople and a client list of over 10,000. We are confident that, with our staff's experience, we can help them succeed in their businesses," Ms. Kalyanee concluded.