Funding:
Role:
Duration:
Unfunded
Principal Investigator (PI)
2023
The transition from education to work is an important life stage for youths. However, this transition may not be equally smooth or automatic for everyone. According to statistics published by the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics, the youth unemployment rate amongst tertiary-educated youths between the age of 15 to 24 in Brunei was 33.1% in 2014, 39.9% in 2017, 41.6% in 2018, 35.8% in 2019, 27.6% in 2020, and 21.7% in 2021 (Source: https://deps.mofe.gov.bn/SitePages/Youth unemployment.aspx). Importantly, these rates are significantly higher compared to youths of the same age group with lower than tertiary qualifications (i.e. technical and vocational, secondary, primary and below). These statistics suggest that university graduates in Brunei may be facing some challenges in their education-to-work transition.
The researcher conducted a pilot study on the employability of recent UBD graduates in 2017/18 (Koh et al., 2018). This study draws upon the findings and insights from the pilot study, to identify new patterns and issues related to the education-to-work transition amongst university graduates in Brunei.