The Market-Oriented Management Style of Private Vocational Schools in Complying with the Labor Market in Southern Thailand

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to research the market-oriented management style of Private Vocational Schools in complying with the labor market in Southern Thailand. This research employed mixed methods as the research methodology, as detailed below, by interviewing ten education executive managers of PrivateVocational Schools and ten general executive managers of employers, using 356 sample questionnaires and reviewing 41 schools in Nakhonsrithammarat, Songkhla and Suratthani provinces.This is based on the growth rate and expansion of industry during the year 2015. The research period is from July to December 2015. (Source: Federation of Industries, 2014). The research found that the important factors were curriculum, quality of graduates, personal practical skills and their making community relations with the local society, compensation and qualification, budget implementation, location and physical characteristics, network construction and participation, public relations, setting up a standard for the learner employers, and their evaluation from employers. In addition, after exploring and confirming via factor analysis, it was found that the market-oriented management style (of private vocational schools) contained five factors including setting up standard and evaluation network construction and public relations with other organizations, public relations with other schools, physical characteristics and location,participationof the employers to develop learner skills. connected with market mix and the 8Ps.