In the world of work,professionals not only need to use the knowledge, but also use skills and many proficiencies learning from real work experience and practice. Those who have or do not have education degrees in any field,totally have their potential to improve competence to work on various aspects.
The knowledge, skills and ability to adapt to the occupation are called the Competency. For each career that consists of many different professions, each job needs to have several competencies to perform effectively. For example, host and guest service profession of lodging and hotel industry is composed of several jobs such as front managers, receptionists, operators, bellboys, and so on. Each job requires different competencies to perform competently.
Consequently,Thailand Professional Qualification Institute(TPQI) cooperates with entrepreneurs and involved-government agencies to identify competencies needed for completing the tasks in one’s job and determine the level of application of knowledge, skills and abilities of the occupation. This is also known as "occupational standard". The occupational standard developed by TPQI will be prepared to get capped and adopted in the course of teaching vocational students in order to provide students cultivated with necessary occupational skills.Futhermore,professionals can attend their tests\' competencies at test and certification centers certified by TPQI in order to get "Professional qualifications", which is to ensure the knowledge and skills to work by occupation. Consequently, they can advance their careers with professional qualification.
Professional qualifications are divided into different levels of professional qualification framework. Vocational qualification at level 1 will identify the basic competencies while the level of professional qualifications will identify the highest-performance, most expertise. In addition, professionals who get certified professional qualifications can also be transferred to the level of professional qualifications.