Banpu Continues Its “Career Day: Opening Doors into a Professional World and Planning for the Future” for the 2nd Year Encouraging Northern Thai youth to broaden their knowledge of occupations
Cultivating knowledge and offering opportunities for youth to make familiar with different types of careers at a young age are important and are also a good foundation for them to search for their dreams and truly know what they like. Also, with these fundamental knowledge and opportunities, they will be able to acquire substantial knowledge both from inside and outside of class learning experiences as to prepare themselves for the right career that suits them in the future. Banpu Education for Sustainability (BES), which was initiated in 2004 by Banpu Public Company Limited, a leading integrated energy solutions company in Asia-Pacific, therefore, continues to organize “2nd Career Day: Opening Doors into a Professional World and Planning for the Future” for Mattayom 3 and 4 (Grade 9-10) students from six schools located in the Northern area of Thailand where Banpu used to conduct its business. These 6 schools include Chiengmuan Wittayakhom School and Bansra School in Phayao; Sobprab Pittayakom School, Maeta Pattanasuksa School and Maeta Wittaya School in Lampang; and Wiengjedee Wittaya School in Lamphun, with totally more than 1,000 students participating in the activity, in order to share knowledge on each professional field to the young students and inspire them to discover themselves and pave their way to the future.
Mrs. Udomlux Olarn, Head of Corporate Affairs, Banpu Public Company Limited stated that “Choosing a major subject or dreaming of a career in the future for these students who have never studied in a big city is not easy. There are not many choices of occupations for them to choose based on what they have been familiar with in their daily life. If we ask these students what you want to be when you grow up, what they could normally think of are teachers, soldiers, medical doctors, etc. Therefore, Banpu decided to organize Career Day: Opening Doors into a Professional World and Planning for the Future in order to offer them a chance to learn about different occupations in the market, including new occupations that followed the innovative and technological changes in the current world. As this is organized for the 2nd year, some activities have been improved to attract attention of these students in discovering themselves. There are more interesting and enjoyable activities with up to career role models from 10 professional fields joining, which are so diverse and full of knowledge.”
The 2nd Career Day: Opening Doors into a Professional World and Planning for the Future had provided both knowledgeable and fun activities. The participating students enjoyed playing ‘Building a Town’ game, in which an area was arranged to be a town with a use of game cards, as to be an ice-breaking activity, as well as a tool to learn more about skills and subjects required for each occupation. This activity had broadened the students’ choices of occupations and knowledge. Moreover, the students could gain basic knowledge, which allowed them to make a decision to participate in the career guidance session that would best suit their major subjects and skills. Then, 10 career role models with extensive skills and passion for their work were introduced to the students in order to have friendly talks about their professional experience, work guidance, as well as skills and capacities required for each occupation.
All career role models were selected based on diversity of occupation with a purpose to widen the students’ perspectives on career choices. Apart from general occupations that were well-known and interesting to these students, such as nurses, Banpu also sought for other occupations that are not in the textbooks, such as a forestry technical officer, a physical therapist, a Thai traditional medical doctor, etc. There were also occupations of the 21st century, came up from new technologies and innovations, combined with personal interest and skills, such as a trading platform developer, a modern agriculturist, and a travel blogger. These career role models had shared their professional stories to make the students intensively understand about each occupation and the qualifications required. Moreover, the students got the inspiration to search for the right career based on their passion, to follow the career path in an innovative way and to be committed to achieving their goals.
Apart from knowledge about occupations, life skills and growth mindset were also what Banpu wanted to cultivate in order for the students to be open with confidence to analyze and make a decision on their own. “I feel so thankful for all the career role models who gave us the knowledge today. Their stories have completely changed my mindset. Before this, I think agriculturists are poor as they have to work hard outside in the burning sun. I’ve never wanted to be an agriculturist, but when I listened to his story, I changed my mind. Actually, agriculturists can also earn a lot of money if we know how to apply our local wisdom together with new technologies. Also, an agriculturist is a pleasing occupation,” shared Sarawut Inmanee, a Mattayom-4 student from Wiengjedee Wittaya School in Lamphun after the activity.
“Banpu believes in people potentials and development by offering them learning opportunities, because knowledge will always be with the one who learns. Learning is limitless both inside and outside of the classroom. Furthermore, life skills will also help us to keep up with the modern world with ability to take care of ourselves. It is a good foundation for ourselves and the society according to Banpu’s belief, “Learning is a power of change and development.” Certainly, there will be new knowledge as well as new occupations in the future. Banpu has expected that the new generations of youth will be fond of learning new things and will endeavor to search for further information in order to collect enough knowledge before making a decision, especially when choosing the right occupation for themselves,” said Mrs. Udomlux.
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About Banpu Public Company Limited
Banpu is a leading integrated energy solutions company in Asia Pacific, operating businesses in coal, power generation, and integrated energy sectors in ten countries, namely Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Singapore, Japan, the USA and Vietnam.
“Learning is the Power of Change and Development”
Banpu’s CSR and other social-oriented activities are based on the firm belief that “learning is the power of change and development” for people and society by emphasizing the promotion and development of continued “learning” among young people and communities in a number of ways. Banpu supports sustainable development of communities and society through a variety of learning opportunities for both individuals and teams, ranging from daily real-life experiences both in- and outside the classroom, to hands-on practice that enhances capabilities and skills.
