The training course must be well planned, especially coordinating with speakers who normally have different characters and preferences. All information must be properly prepared in order to arrange the course that fully meets the objectives.
Mr. Boonrak Kanjanawarawanich,
Senior Coordinator of Human Resource Development in Materials Technology for the Industry of Business Development Department
Mr. Boonrak Kanjanawarawanich graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Science in Industry Chemistry, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, and currently works as a Senior Coordinator of Human Resource Development in Materials Technology for the Industry of Business Development Department of MTEC.
Background
After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree, Mr. Boonrak worked in the leather tanning industry. In the beginning, he had to learn various tasks in the factory and also worked with other employees. His responsibility was to put animal skins into the machines and use chemicals to bleach and dye them. It was a new work experience for him because the knowledge about dyeing animal skins had not been taught in the university. He worked here for one month and resigned, however, because of many factors, such as the factory was quite far from his accommodation, and the type of work didn’t match his skill and knowledge.
Work at MTEC
During the period of searching for a new job, Mr. Boonrak came to MTEC
to meet his friend and had met Dr. Anucha Euapermkiati, who was once a
part-time lecturer at his institution. Dr.
Anucha offered Mr. Boonrak a job and his first assignment was
to study the current of the metal industry at that time.
After
working at MTEC for a while, Dr. Anucha had assigned Mr. Boonrak to work with
the Federation of Thai Industries, which Dr. Anucha was a member of the
Plastics Industry Council, and MTEC is also a national center for materials
expertise, therefore, it is assigned by most of its members to be in charge of
producing the Plastics Industry Group’s newsletter. As a result, Mr. Boonrak
was assigned to work on the newsletter and whenever there was a group meeting,
he would have to accompany Dr. Anucha.
At
that time, he mostly worked on the newsletter by himself with the help of Dr.
Anucha only on the editorial part. Therefore, it was considered an opportunity
for him to learn the whole process. This newsletter assignment had improved Mr. Boonrak’s writing skill.
After
Dr. Anucha resigned from MTEC, Mr. Boonrak continued working at MTEC and was
responsible for newsletters for the Federation of Thai Industries. At the same
time, MTEC had established a material technology magazine and Mr. Boonrak
had joined the editorial team. His
responsibility, therefore, consisted of creating newsletters and writing an
article for a material technology magazine. However, Mr. Boonrak worked at MTEC
for about a year and then resigned, and handed over the newsletter responsibility
to the Federation of Thai Industries for further action.
New work experiences
After resigning from MTEC, he started to work at the private company as a distributor of laboratory equipment according to his friend’s suggestion. However, he worked here only for a couple of months until the company had been closed.
Later, he applied for a job at a private company with a foreign owner. His position was a chemical distributor for a paper factory, wastewater treatment industry, and paint industry, responsible for meeting with customers to bring the chemical samples to try and promote products. He sometimes worked as a delivery driver during the busy periods of the company, as well as in case of urgent need.
When asked about the experiences required for business communication skills, Mr. Boonrak said that when he was a dealer, he had the opportunity to learn his boss’s work style of using many methods and tricks to keep the company’s customers.
When asked about the experiences required for business communication skills, Mr. Boonrak said that when he was a dealer, he had the opportunity to learn his boss’s work style of using many methods and tricks to keep the company’s customers.
Mr. Boonrak gave an example about a company problem reducing a very high cost of the disposal of the waste that comes out of the sewage. This company originally had a sludge crusher and had been using canvas to compress the sediment. However, the canvas would become clogged quite rapidly, thus making it unable to expel water from the sediment, and when the sediment is left, it will give off a foul smell. Mr.Boonrak thus came to see the water treatment process at the plant and introduced the company to a polymer that aids in sludge aggregation by demonstrating on-site how to prepare the polymers. The polymer addition test in the wastewater showed that the polymer helps to clump the sludge and separate it clearly from the water, which allowed the factory to extend the life of the canvas. This demonstration met the need of the plant officer, who was the head of the maintenance department, and after a while, this polymer product was ordered for use in the factory.
Mr. Boonrak mentioned that after the ordering, he continued to follow up and continuously provide after-sales service because this company was a new customer, and after installing all the equipment, he also went to the site to follow the product applications to see if there were any problems.
Back to work at MTEC
After working at the private company for a couple of years, Mr. Boonrak returned to work at MTEC for a second time as an information officer. At that time, he visited his friend who worked as an information officer at MTEC, responsible for maintaining the database and was about to resign. He, therefore, had applied for this position and was responsible to maintain industrial databases and translate technology news for publication in materials technology magazines.
Throughout his time working at MTEC, Mr. Boonrak had created many writings both in the form of books, such as Roo-Rob Rob-Roo (Know it all), product technology, Biomimicry, nature and strange but true in the scientific world or in the form of articles on technology and materials for the general public by publishing in various magazines.
Examples of the writings by Mr. Boonrak
Mr. Boonrak said that he likes many articles, and what he likes the most are the articles about disruptive technology, Einstein’s legacy, Leonardo da Vinci’s top 10 works, Leonardo da Vinci’s life and work, as well as genius and space shuttle technology.
New responsibility
When the organization allowed internal personnel to change their positions, Mr. Boonrak, who had been working in the same position for more than 10 years, was looking for new experiences. He, therefore, moved to work in the training section, where the work assignment was certainly different from his previous position.
Mr. Boonrak said that article writing is fun by researching new things. However, it took quite a lot of time to search for more information. Writing, therefore, is a job mostly relying on yourself. On the contrary, training is a collaboration with various people, e.g., speakers and participants with different personalities.
An example of a normal training course
The training course must be well planned, especially coordinating with the speakers because of their different personalities. Therefore, before the training, the information must be prepared in order to arrange the course that fully meets the needs. Most importantly, it is necessary to set a schedule with ample time, in case there is an unexpected situation.
Mr. Boonrak mentioned that the most challenging event was an international conference, which was held in a province with a high cost of living. Thus creating challenges on many dimensions, such as budget constraint, financial documents, and communication with foreign speakers, as well as foreign attendees. However, there were some problems in the event, but he could solve them and considered them as work experience.
Another case was organizing an academic training course. The customers informed him that they are interested in attending this course. He, therefore, proceeded with the registration, issued invoices, reserved meals, as well as sent course details and training materials via their email. When the training day arrived, the customers did not participate without prior notice, which according to the regulations, they must notify at least 1 day in advance. They also refused to pay the training fee that was charged in the invoice and cannot be contacted by their phone numbers. As a result, the process had passed to the stage of legal action, causing them to finally agree to pay the debt. This work experience was something he would never forget.
Mr. Boonrak said that during the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizing training courses, seminars, or academic conferences can no longer be held in the normal way. Therefore, an online platform has been adapted to organize all training courses, seminars, or various academic conferences as a new normal style.
An example of an online training course
Mr. Boonrak has various work experiences since he had been working in industrial plants and private companies, and currently works at the government agencies, therefore, he has different work perspectives.
Mr. Boonrak said that from his work experiences, the private companies mostly focus on their benefits as they will use different strategies to keep their customers. On the contrary, the government agencies mainly focus on developing work results with the efficiency of work performance and budget.
In addition, work in government organizations has been more proactive. Training, for example, has been seeking new clients by considering the course topics, which has become the strength of speakers, who are mostly MTEC researchers. Then the target customers will be determined conforming to the topic, which MTEC had already started this process. Furthermore, a survey of customer needs was also conducted on the topics of training and the highlight of the course topic is based on the expertise of the researchers, thus making MTEC unrivaled.
Future plan
Mr. Boonrak plans to work at MTEC until his retirement. He said that back in his parent’s generation, if you have money in the bank, the interest received may be enough to live comfortably after retirement, but at present, it is not likely to happen because the interest on deposits is very low. He, therefore, plans to learn about investing whether mutual funds, stocks, or life insurance. Health is also an important factor to be concerned about in the future,
especially when you are older. He normally exercises at the gym but during the COVID-19 pandemic, everything is closed. As a result, he starts to exercise at home as exercising not only keeps you healthy but also helps prevent office syndrome.
