Organizing officials
gather for a group photo during the announcement of free vocational
classes for Muslim residents.
Urasin Khantaraphan
Local schools and government agencies have teamed up to offer
educational courses for Pattaya area Muslims to better prepare them for
the coming ASEAN Economic Community.
Nongprue Mayor Mai Chaiyanit announced the program Aug. 14 at Chalerm
Prakiat Garden with representatives from the Designated Areas for
Sustainable Tourism Administration, Vocational Training Center, and
Thai-ITOH Technology Vocational College.
The organizations have come together to increase the competitive
potential of Muslims, most of them in East Pattaya, for the AEC, which
begins in January.
Courses offered cover English-language learning, ethnic-cooking classes,
and courses to craft Muslim robes and caps.
The cooking course began Aug. 18 and runs through the 29th, teaching
students to create 10 foreign and local dishes over 10 hours. The
Vocational Training Center ran the course.
Two seamstress courses to create taqiyah (Muslim caps) and hijab (veils
for Muslim women), along with other garments will be offered Sept. 8-19,
running 6 hours per day over 10 days, for 20 students per class at the
Vocational Training Center.
Thai-ITOH will handle the English-language instruction, again in two
courses starting the last week in August. Each course runs 40 hours and
will offer beginner and basic levels. Students will be placed in classes
based on an English-proficiency test. Times have yet to be decided.
All the above courses are being offered free of charge.
