| Azlan Othman |

SOME 6,500 new local jobseekers will enter the job market on average every year. Of this figure, 2,600 comprised graduates holding Bachelor’s Degrees and higher qualifications, but currently only around 6,000 jobs can be provided annually to meet this demand.

Minister of Energy, Manpower and Industry Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mat Suny bin Haji Mohd Hussein highlighted this when elaborating his ministry’s proposed budget yesterday on the 10th day of the Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting.

He said the issue of unemployment is of foremost concern to the Ministry of Energy, Manpower and Industry (MEMI), and that the number of new jobseekers is expected to increase every year in commensuration to the annual increase in the national population.

Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mat Suny said that the ministry has formulated several steps to address this issue and to ensure that human resources are used positively and productively.

These include the continuous development of skills and competencies for locals according to industry requirements; provision of policies and initiatives to promote participation of locals in the job market, especially in the private sector; improving industry development to open up new job opportunities; and maximising economic or spinoff effects, including supporting the adoption of locals and purchase of local goods and services. To enhance the compatibility of the job market with needs of the industry, the ministry will continue to drive the provision of skilled, competent and employable workers, in partnership with the stakeholders to ensure that courses and the education curriculum in the country – including technical and vocational training programmes – mirror the needs of the country and industry development.

The other step is via JobCentre Brunei, tasked with helping locals gain more exposure to industry, as well as the launch of the Bruneianisation Directive.

Towards this end, the minister highlighted, various programmes and platforms for locals to undergo ‘reskilling’ and ‘upskilling’ courses according to industry needs that have been introduced, including the i-Ready Apprentice programme, Centre for Capacity Building (PPK), and Industrial Competency Framework (ICF).

Elaborating on the i-Ready Apprenticeship Programme, Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mat Suny noted that as of March 16 this year, a total of 2,098 graduates have joined the programme since its inception on April 1, 2017.

The i-Ready programme, an Apprenticeship scheme that runs for three years, is open to Bachelor’s Degree graduates and higher qualifications who wish to gain work experience and skills, or want to reskill in different fields from their academic qualifications.

Out of these 2,098 graduates, 524 (24.9 per cent) have secured permanent jobs even before the end of the programme.

In addition, seven i-Ready apprentices have also had the opportunity to undergo their apprenticeships abroad.

The ministry also has plans this year to further open up apprenticeship and overseas training opportunities for i-Ready apprentices, the minister said. Discussions with overseas stakeholders are underway to realise these plans.

“Efforts will continue to be made to empower the ability of locals to enable them to lead the national development.

“The private sector is also urged to play a more active role in improving the skills and competitiveness of locals,” said the minister.

The Bruneianisation Directive for the oil and gas sector established on June 20 last year through the MEMI, Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mat Suny highlighted, came as a result of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam’s titah during the official opening ceremony of the LegCo meeting last year calling for locals to be empowered to take up all job positions even up to the management level.

The ministry, he said, will continue enforcing the directive and ensure proper succession planning and improvement of skills, until the companies in the included sectors achieve 90 per cent local employment.

As of January 2019, the Bruneianisation rate in the oil and gas sector is around 82 per cent. “This year the MEMI will roll out the Bruneianisation Directive to the non-oil and gas sector in stages in cooperation with the other ministries and agencies,” the minister said.

With regard to the issue of local workers preferring public sector jobs, the minister pointed out that there are indications that this trend is fading.

“Though the rate of unemployment has increased to 9.3 per cent as reported by the Labour Force Survey 2017 compared to 6.9 per cent in 2014, the same report also shows that the number of locals being hired in the private sector has increased from 53,994 people in 2014 to 66,363 in 2017,” Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mat Suny said.

“This shows that locals are not reluctant to secure jobs in the fields outside of the public service sector. Issues regarding unemployment will be studied in more details to identify the real reasons behind companies’ reluctance to hire local workers, as stated in His Majesty’s titah.”