Facebook expanding digital skills program to Thailand

Social media powerhouse Facebook is bringing its digital training program, “We Think Digital,” to Thailand to raise the level of digital skills and literacy among younger and older Thai netizens, 56 million of whom log into Facebook at least once a month.

“Creating digital literacy for youngsters and adults will facilitate the country’s transformation to a digital society,” said Newin Chochaiyathip, Vice-Minister of the Digital Economy and Society Ministry.

In addition, Facebook announced that it is launching its second Facebook Accelerator program for Thailand on December 3. The six-month program is designed to support startups in the region that are innovative and data-driven.

“At the first edition, we welcomed ten startups from around the region and helped them accelerate their businesses in new and innovative ways, placing peoples’ trust, transparency, and control over their data at the core,” Facebook said in a company statement.

“This year, we are bringing back the program to welcome more startups and female entrepreneurs to join us by bringing to you our exclusive Women in Tech panel as well as a panel to discuss the local startup scene,” Facebook said.

For the “We Think Digital” program, Facebook is partnering with Kenan Foundation Asia for youth training and is working with Love Frankie, a social change communication agency. In the latter partnership, the goal to train young influencers to create online content that is appropriate for their audience. Facebook has set up a Thai website, wethinkdigital.fb.com/th, for digital skills knowledge.

“We build digital skill and literacy that would serve as basic fundamentals to enable a high quality of digital citizenship that can utilize maximum positive benefit from digital technology, particularly social media,” said Simon Milner, vice-president for public policy in Asia-Pacific at Facebook.

Photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/bangkok/?locations[0]=Bangkok%2C%20Thailand