Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - The current Brunei National Development Plan has a strong emphasis on developing Human Resources of the nation, with a special budget allocated for education and training.

According to the NDP, scholarship recipients will be encouraged to seek employment overseas on completion of their studies - to gain valuable experience and have exposure to international working environment.

Another way of gaining overseas work experience is to undertake industrial attachments as part of the degree program. A number of programs at universities in the UK offer this option, although this scheme is little known and understood in Brunei.

"One benefit to a Bruneian student is that the whole exercise of applying for the placement - interview skills, writing CV, travelling for

interviews etc - is done with support from the university," said Dr Smita Wimmer of HRD Services Global Education Link. "The industrial placement, usually of a one-year duration, provides excellent transferable skills such as teamwork, communication, report writing, time management, organizational skills, business sense etc, which are valuable to the student when seeking full-time employment and also to the potential employer. Placement schemes are structured and universities lay out the learning outcomes that the organization and student have to fulfill."

Other benefits of a placement scheme include relating the course work done in two years at the university to its application in industry. Most students obtain a better grasp of the theoretical, textbook material after applying it to practical matters. At the same time, the placement year allows the student to experience different types of jobs within a company, thus providing the student with the opportunity to make an informed career choice after graduating. Most importantly, the placement year brings with it a reasonable salary, often approaching the graduate pay scale.

The usual format for the placement is that after completing the second year of an undergraduate degree, the student spends a full year doing a salaried job, usually in business, industry or commerce, and then returns to university for the final year of the degree program. Some sponsored programs offer a 'thin sandwich' - the student undertakes industrial training in two six-month stages separated by periods of academic study.

Universities are committed in supporting placements in order to enhance the vocational relevance of their programs. At the University of Bath, for example, a large number of disciplines at undergraduate level provide opportunities for placements - either within the UK or overseas. Through industrial placements, staff gain a direct insight into research and development activity within industry, thus allowing the academic staff to ensure that the curriculum is directly relevant to the needs of employers.

At the University of Loughborough, successful completion of industrial training benefits the student to be awarded an additional qualification— Diploma in Industrial or Professional Studies (DIS/DPS).

The student does not have to make contact with potential employer before starting the course. Departments within universities have a wide pool of industrial contacts and the student will obtain substantial assistance from the university to find suitable placement.

Te year-out boosts confidence and helps the student to achieve a better degree result.

To find out more about this exciting opportunity, students can contact HRD Services Global Education Link on 2232811. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin