Bangkok (Manager Online) - The Office of Higher Education Comission (OHEC) planned to ask for 2.4 billion baht of budget to help new graduates during the economic crisis.

The budget was expected to help about 80,000-90,000 new graduates.

Sumeth Yaemnoon, OHEC secretary-general, said Thailand was affected by the global financial crisis ignited by the US financial crisis.

As a result, 160,000 new graduates, especially those who are in the science field would be affected in terms of employment.

OHEC would support these graduates to further their study to get ready for economic recovery.

Some graduates would be sent to attend job training programs, and this was already discussed with the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC).

The government would also be asked to pay 50% of salary of these graduates.

Graduates who are good at math and science could teach at rural schools where teacher shortage occurred. This should serve about 5,000-6,000 graduates.

OHEC also joined the Government Housing Bank (GHB) to run the loan for freelance workers project offering 100,000-200,000 baht of loan a person.