Lifestyle Gap Analysis: Student Lifestyle and Employer Preferences

Abstract

While the recent recession has wreaked havoc in many parts of the world, Asia has escaped relatively unscathed and managed to post growth rates unheard of in the Western world. This has been the case with Thailand which also had to deal with internal turbulence. A large part of the country’s resilience stems from its ability to produce high quality products and its productivity, which it needs, however, to increase even more. One way to increase its productivity is for Thai people to know what skills are required in the industry long before they decide what courses to take and lifestyle to adopt. By clarifying the gap between students’ lifestyle and corporations’ expectancies in terms of students’ lifestyles, both students and corporations will maximize education and employees’ training. As many graduates embark on inappropriate careers and as corporations often chose inappropriate employees, both students and corporations end wasting resources and time. Focusing on students at one large university in Bangkok, Thailand, this study takes a close look at this gap. It first makes it clear where the gap lies and then proposes a way to fill it.