Headshot of Catherine Wang
MPP 2023
WAPPP Intern, Cultural Bridge
Generation Thailand; Bangkok, Thailand

Catherine will spend this summer working for Generation Thailand, a non-profit organization dedicated to decreasing youth unemployment, by transforming education to employment pathways. The organization designs and delivers training programs that equip youth with the skills necessary to gain meaningful employment. Catherine will drive two projects. The first is Healthcare Training Design & Delivery: Thailand was hit hard by COVID-19, given the tourism industry’s large role in the country’s economy. Catherine will work with Thailand’s Ministry of Education to design a training program aimed at re-skilling workers previously employed in the tourism industry with skills required to work in the healthcare industry (which has increasing labor demand, due to COVID-19). This project has massive impact on women because women made up 70% of Thailand’s tourism workforce pre-pandemic. Re-skilling women so that they can join the healthcare industry provides pathways to more stable, formal, and high-paying work. The second project is Female Empowerment Strategy. To date, Generation Thailand’s trainings have been focused on the technology sector (e.g., offering coding, UX design training programs). As a result, most of the organization’s impact has concentrated in middle and upper class males. For context, less than 60% of women are employed in Thailand, compared to 75% of men. To help Generation address this, Catherine will help develop a long-term roadmap for increasing female employment and eliminating the gender pay gap. This will include identifying industries to prioritize, developing new sources of funding, and most importantly, conducting interviews with female learners and employees.

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