Skill Upgrading for Informal Hair and Beauty Services Workers in Hat Yai, Thailand

Abstract

Skills upgrading for informal workers is key to the development of the informal economy in any nation and so bridging the skill gaps will essentially improve the gains of other interventions and total wellbeing of the workers. Improving the economic and productive capacity of informal economy workers (IEWS) in developing countries has been a major priority globally. Studies have revealed that informal workers (IWs) are generally plagued with low skills, low income and low productivity, which could tie to the fact that they do not have the requisite means to improve their performance quality through skills training. This in- depth multilevel research study of skill upgrading impact on the skill performance levels of informal economy workers (IEWS) was carried out on the informal hair and beauty services workers (IHBSWs) in Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand to explore the perceptions of workers, customers, business-owners and training-providers. The research employed the mixed methods research design with multilevel surveys and interviews, observations, secondary data as well as mixed purposeful sampling. The research sought to decipher the perceptions of all sample groups on the impact of skills upgrading on skill performance, the current skill acquisition process and workers' skill levels, skill upgrading needs and their consequences, and workers' skill performance levels as well as the challenges they face accessing skills upgrading and some key recommendations. The study found out that trainings provided and skill- levels of workers were basic, while only a small proportion of workers learnt their skills from vocational colleges, but more from social-media like Facebook and YouTube. In addition, only one skill set out of six (Haircare), didn't show any overall gap while 52 skills out of total of 85 had high gaps. The findings also revealed that people (71%) generally perceive that skill upgrading greatly impacts skill performance and skills performance levels to be at novice levels for most skills and all other skill sets except General Skills, which relates to the general concept that informal workers are basically low-skilled with low-productivity. Conclusively, IEWS need skill upgrading to improve their performance and so thus skill upgrading should be an integral part of skill development strategies. We recommend that skill development policies and programs need to be more attentive to the training needs of the IEWS. This knowledge will help policy-makers, trainers and program managers of skill development for informal workers to identify which skill areas to focus on for training and how to improve training design as well as contribute to research on skill quality/demands for this occupational domain.