Congratulations to UBD Graduates
[Photo courtesy of Ranz]My heartiest congratulations to all those who graduated from UBD last Thursday. And my hearties congratulations too to His Royal Highness Prince Malik for getting his BA Education Studies yesterday. He got a 2nd Class Upper too. I was there to watch it and I have to admit I thought at first it will not be as exciting as I did not have a single family member graduating. But watching all the excitement and everyone having a good time, it does remind me of the time when I graduated many years ago. Apparently a graduation ceremony is still as enjoyable even when there is no family member graduating. Prince Malik enjoyed it more. His siblings were there to watch him.
Among us there were two main discussion topics. One is about the government and the economy's capability to absorb such a number of graduates. Yesterday was the largest ever graduating from UBD which including the diploma holders number more than a thousand. That's a thousand people with newly minted degrees and diplomas. That's at least a thousand job at Divisions 2 and 3 for the government and for the economy. That is a large number. Factor in those coming from overseas....
The other discussion topic was that about 80% of those who graduated yesterday were ladies. Good for the ladies. But what happened to the men? What happened to our boys? I am not one to speculate but something needs tweaking somewhere....
During the graduation ceremony, we were seated next to the musicians. The music provided a nice background. I thought it was recorded but apparently the music was courtesy of live performers. And they played on and on and on.... But I think they played a tad too loud that the announcer had to compete with the music.
Anyway, my entries over the last few days have been quite erratic. It's going to get worse. I am off to Nanjing by the time you read this and it will be about a week before I get back.
Comments
What His Majesty's Government should tap into now is the much-hyped about 250 Million Human Resources Development (HRD) Fund. A big chunk of the HRD fund should be funneled into the local Private Sector as much-needed incentives to attract degree holders to either work for Bruneian SME companies or to start-up their own small businesses. I think high time for the Civil Service to be re-structured so as not to grow too big out of proportion, too.
That way Gov't overhead coffers could be cost-cut and bureaucracy could be reduced. Hopefully, it'd result in greater efficiency and productivity. It'd also boost the Private Sector to grow, expand and prosper further. SMEs can then try to contribute more to the national economy. Sounds like Win-Win best case scenario, no? Just my 2 cents worth only! :)
My rationale for this preposterous idea is that SMEs can't compete with the Government in attracting the 'cream of the crop' amongst Bruneian job-seekers. And most local SMEs don't have that big a capital to give higher salaries...