Community Participation in Career Development for Increasing the Elderly’s incomes

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) study the needs of the elderly for career development to generate incomes, 2) study the process of community participation in career development for the elderly, and 3) conduct the career development for the elderly. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from 353 elderly people in the community. Also, focus group discussion and in-depth interview with representatives of the elderly, local leaders and the community leaders were used in data collection. The research results were as follows: 1) the overall needs of the elderly for career development was at a high level ( = 3.80), which were divided into aspects of the activity ( = 4.12), the recruitment ( = 3.91), the career promotion program affecting the elderly ( = 3.59), and the project type ( = 3.58) respectively, 2) in aspect of the community participation, SAO and the community allowed the elderly to participate in planning by expressing opinions through the community administration of SAO and other channels. In aspect of the operation, the community leaders would be the key to driving projects and activities continuously. In aspect of using the project services, SAO and the community continuously organized vocational training activities for the elderly, such as hand-woven bags made from waste materials, which was a short course for the elderly. In aspect of the benefit, every elderly person in the community was able to participate in vocational training provided by SAO or the community, 3) regarding the career development for the elderly, the focus group discussion suggested that the community enterprise of Thepharak sub-district held the training in making bags from waste materials. The reason for choosing this supplementary occupation was that the community in Thepharak sub-district was an urban community, so there were quite a lot of waste materials, such as soft-drink cans, beer cans, and packaging boxes with beautiful patterns. The elderly who attended the training would learn the skill and used it for their supplementary occupation in order to increase their own incomes. They may form a group and sell the products on behalf of the elderly club of the sub-district, or sell the products at the OTOP fair of Theparak sub-district or in Samut Prakan province.