Accept working in private sector as career, jobseekers told

JOBSEEKERS need to accept working in the private sector as a career rather than a stepping stone, said the Assistant Commissioner of the Labour Department at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Even though customer services are improving in Brunei, more efforts are needed towards creating awareness to school leavers in looking for work at different sectors other than the government, Hj Mohd Ideni Hj Ahmad said.

"We (the department) are trying to change the mindset and convince current jobseekers that having a job in the private sector can lead to a promising career," he said on the sidelines of certificate presentation ceremony to participants of motivational and customer service course participants at the Employment Centre on Saturday.

Majority of the school leavers had Form Five qualifications and below, a demographic they want to convince, in which he added can be a challenge.

"I think the big challenge is that we have to make them ready to be attached to the private sector.I think that they are ready academically,"he said.

With their level of education, they are ready for instruction and to receive orders, he said.

"It's not them who are the problem, but their readiness to see the private sector as a permanent career," he said.

During a talk at the event, the invited counsellor spoke of how local jobseekers tend to leave their jobs after a short period of time.

He attributed this trend to lack of awareness of what they want to do.

Referring to the time when Hjh Mordiah Hj Jackia, a local counsellor gave a talk and asked one of the participants during the question and answer session, on what kind of job she wanted to do, he said the participant replied that "she didn't know", and this itself was an indication of the lack of awareness.

"I think when they work, they only wanted to earn a salary, but not see it as a career. I think if they liked what they do, they will like the job and hence do better," he said.

He also said that most suffered low self-confidence because of the years of being unemployed after leaving school.

Some of their focus, he said, was still on getting a government job. "I think they don't know what to do most of the time. They want a proper job but don't know how to get it. They need to be more focused and learn that getting skills is not a process that takes overnight."

He added: "They need to learn how to compete. Compete to get the job academically or compete with foreign workers."

Currently, he said that the Employment Centre has about 12 courses specifically for jobseekers.

"We finance the courses, aiming to improve their skills and employability of the jobseekers,"he said.

He also said that the customer services in Brunei is improving and they will continue to give more customer-oriented services. "We are expanding in giving them more courses in preparation for them to be deployed in the employment market."

"We will give courses such as receptionist courses and all kinds of other service-oriented courses," he said.

In these courses, he said that the most frequently highlighted would be their motivation.

"Realising that these people need to work, they also need to be driven and pushed. They need something to pull them into employment. These are the things that needed to be looked at in the future, causes, preparation and development," he said.

He added: "There must be a push and pull factor in the employment market."

In addressing the qualms of customer services in Brunei by the public, he said that the Employment Centre will be giving courses in relation to customer service.The Brunei Times