Building Competencies for a Digital Age — Insights from Thailand
Summary
Bringing together 40 diverse stakeholders, Thailand’s Ministry of Education, UNICEF Thailand, and EdTech Hub’s participatory workshop focused on shaping a draft digital competencies framework to support Thailand’s learners. Tailored to Thailand’s context while aligning with global best practices, the framework aims to address emerging technologies and deliver quality, up-to-date education for all. The workshop process highlighted key lessons on collaboration, inclusivity, and digital transformation in education.
Introduction
New technologies such as generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) have rapidly advanced in recent years, creating challenges for education and government systems to adapt to. In Thailand, several initiatives have been introduced in recent years, including the national ICT Master Plan, a digital competency framework for civil servants and government personnel, and an AI User Manual developed for educators. While these efforts represent important progress, they have yet to provide the education sector with a holistic, comprehensive, and evidence-based framework to guide digital transformation.
Recognising this gap, the Ministry of Education and UNICEF Thailand identified the need to create a framework for digital competencies specifically for education that aligns with Thailand’s current government-wide ICT policies, while meeting the needs of teachers and students in Thai schools. This initiative builds on momentum from the 2023 UNICEF Thailand-EdTech Hub workshop on aligning stakeholders on the ICT Master Plan and advancing digital learning to enhance student outcomes. During that workshop, the Ministry emphasised the importance of considering key enablers of digital transformation, such as internet connectivity, access to digital equipment, learner safety, and student success.
In July 2025, the Ministry, UNICEF Thailand, and EdTech Hub facilitated a three-day workshop to co-develop the nation’s digital competencies framework for education. The work was part of EdTech Hub’s Helpdesk portfolio, which offers just-in-time, tailored support to those working with ministries of education and decision makers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Since 2021, EdTech Hub and UNICEF have been working together to address EdTech challenges through work with UNICEF country and regional offices.
The workshop brought together 40 stakeholders from across the education and Thai ICT sectors, each with diverse expertise and perspectives on teaching, technology, and policy. Over three days, participants worked together to identify the digital skills teachers, students, leaders, and education systems need most. They shared real experiences, from students using AI for assignments to teachers looking for better ways to integrate technology in the classroom. Through these discussions, they explored emerging tools, exchanged practical ideas, and shaped a vision that reflects Thailand’s education priorities while staying aligned with global best practices. After the workshop, key lessons emerged about the process. Here, we share these insights for practitioners, facilitators, and other education stakeholders seeking to collaboratively develop an education framework or policy for their own context.
1. Include diverse perspectives
The Hub has found that bringing together people with different backgrounds, roles, and experiences enriches conversations and leads to stronger, more actionable workshop outcomes. In this case, inviting stakeholders from government agencies and organisations across the Thai education sector ensures that the final framework will accurately reflect the current context and help ground ambition to the realities of implementation.
The workshop convened representatives from 12 national government agencies and intergovernmental organisations. Together, these institutions brought diverse expertise and perspectives on teaching, technology, and policy, creating a dynamic environment for co-design.
One challenge, however, was the need for even greater diversity and attendance. Participants noted that involvement from additional government agencies would have been welcome. To solve this, we recommend inviting participants early, building momentum, and providing incentives to encourage engagement. While a survey of Thai teachers, school leaders, and educational personnel was conducted to inform the workshop, we would have liked to include more such voices in the conversation, including educational personnel from Thai NGOs, CSOs, and the private sector.
2. Build in time for deep discussion
Because we wanted the workshop to be highly collaborative, the majority of sessions were spent in small groups of 5–8 people. Each group had two trained facilitators from Chulalongkorn University, who helped guide the discussion and note-taking. The facilitators, graduate students from the Department of Educational Policy, Management and Leadership, were critical to creating that space in Thai and helping to foster open, critical, and productive dialogue amongst small groups and the larger workshop. EdTech Hub provided a detailed guidance document, including instructions, guiding questions, and timing, along with training through a virtual pre-workshop session and in-person meeting to ensure the facilitators felt confident and capable in leading the discussions.
It was also important to facilitate dialogue among different stakeholders – each group included people from a variety of agencies, allowing them to exchange perspectives and brainstorm collaboratively. One common topic of conversation that persisted throughout the workshop, for example, was how challenges in Thai classrooms, like supporting teachers to both use and teach AI, could be addressed by the Ministry partnering across the government with other agencies doing similar work on ICT. This cross-sector interaction helped uncover new insights and fostered a deeper understanding of what already exists and what is needed for a digital competencies framework.
3. Leverage a variety of tools and methods
Mixing input approaches, from sticky notes to AI-assisted translation, makes ideas easier to capture and explore. Before and during the workshop, the Hub used a variety of tools, including a digital teacher survey, paper-based mapping, and AI for rapid analysis and theme grouping.
The teacher survey (n=256), conducted with ONE TEACHER Thailand (OTT), ensured that educator voices were included. OTT is a nationwide network of teachers who collaborate, share experiences, and advocate for improved teaching and learning conditions. As UNICEF’s research partner, the Hub works alongside OTT to strengthen its capacity, helping the network learn, grow, and amplify teacher perspectives. The survey revealed that teachers primarily use technology for lesson planning (80%), in-class instruction (68%), and student assessment through grading or LMS platforms (38%). Despite this relatively high uptake, 74% of respondents said they lacked a guiding framework for systematic integration of digital tools into teaching. This highlights the need for clearer policy direction and professional standards to support consistent and effective use of digital resources across schools.
Hub-designed workshop activities combined small-group discussions, plenary sessions, and collaborative mapping exercises supported by AI. The team was ultimately able to synthesise more than 60 priorities and gaps identified across teacher, policy, and technical groups into a refined structure of nine core competency domains, each reflecting shared values of digital ethics, inclusion, and adaptability. This mix of methods allowed participants to surface key challenges, build consensus, and generate actionable solutions quickly and collectively.
4. Be iterative and open to adaptation
The action plan was designed not just to finalise this work, but to serve as an iterative framework that can adapt to future changes in digital learning. Given the fast-evolving EdTech landscape, participants highlighted the importance of regularly revisiting and updating the framework, ensuring it remains relevant and proactive. Piloting initiatives on a smaller scale, learning from what works and what doesn’t, and documenting these lessons also ensures that improvements can be scaled effectively.
In the final phase of the workshop, this principle of iteration was put into practice. The Hub asked stakeholders to map roles and responsibilities for authorship, validation, and nationwide rollout, including teacher training and policy integration. Mixed groups openly discussed overlaps, shared perspectives, data sources, and identified opportunities for collaboration. They also agreed on cycles of monitoring and evaluation to feed lessons back into the framework. This collaborative approach helps ensure that adaptation is not only possible but expected, with accountability spread across agencies so that the framework remains a living document that is shaped by evidence, grounded in practice, and responsive to both local needs and global shifts.
What’s next?
The collaborative action plan that participants put together during the workshop emphasises near-term steps such as finalising the framework and securing institutional endorsement. It also includes longer-term strategies for capacity building, monitoring, and integration into policy and practice.
Ultimately, partners must collaborate to continue this journey, with a shared focus on successful implementation. As part of this process, UNICEF and EdTech Hub will convene a virtual workshop later this year to review preliminary feedback from the school level, creating space to bring classroom perspectives into the national dialogue and ensuring that the framework remains grounded in real-world practice.
Thailand’s experience offers lessons for other countries developing digital competencies frameworks, particularly the value of early inclusion, iteration, and evidence-based adaptation, with the ultimate aim of enhancing education and improving learner outcomes.
Want to continue your learning journey? Check out our resources from EdTech Hub/UNICEF’s collaboration, including:
- Exploring Teacher Digital Skills and Literacy Competencies: A curated list of frameworks and resources to inform UNICEF Thailand – Evidence Library – The EdTech Hub
- One Teacher Thailand: A case study of a teacher learning network – Evidence Library – The EdTech Hub
Acknowledgement
This workshop would not have been possible without the collaboration and expertise of our partners. Alongside UNICEF Thailand and the Ministry of Education, participants included representatives from:
The Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), the Bureau of Information and Communication Technology (BICT) the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education (OPS MOE), the Teacher Council of Thailand (KPS), the Office of the Teacher Civil Service and Educational Personnel Commission (OTEPC), the Office of Vocational Education Commission (OVEC), the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching (IPST), National Institute for Development of Teachers, Faculty Staff and Educational Personnel (NIDTEP), UNESCO, and UNICEF EAPRO.
