One active site that is involved with onshore oil and gas activity is Bintulu, which is in Borneo, Sarawak. There is an average of 1800 contractor workers at the site with a size of 276 hectares, an average of 462 Permit-To-Work (PTW) released daily. The site recorded 1 fatality case in every 5 years cycle since 2009. This trend shows that serious attention needs to be addressed, especially on the contractor worker selection process. Due to this, worker's competency working in this industry needs to be strengthened as part of the element in Health, Safety, and Environment Management System (HSEMS) requirement to ensure sustainable and safe operation of the plant as it contributes to HSE performance of the organization. The objectives of this study involve assessing contractor's HSE competency and HSE attitude working in the oil and gas industry in Sarawak, develop a comprehensive assessment tool to measure worker's competency, and propose a specific syllabus for potential workers to work in the oil and gas industry. Hence, a pilot survey has been conducted to assess 88 contractor worker's HSE competencies. A quantitative approach via a Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. The pilot survey results show that education level, experience, and competency played key important roles in HSE. Based on the pilot survey findings and literature review related to competency assessment for the workforce in oil and gas, furthering this study will be able to develop an algorithm for the assessment of contractor worker's HSE competency in the oil and gas industry in Sarawak.

This study examined the patterns of socioculturally appropriate social interactions of Malaysia's Orang Asli children in an educational computer environment. Rogoff's Sociocultural Theory and the three foci of analyses were utilized in this study. A multi-method case study design was employed to identify the patterns of socioculturally appropriate social interactions unique to the Malaysia's Orang Asli preschool children in Selangor. Twelve preschool children were observed and interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Seven dominant interaction patterns related to socioculturally appropriate social interactions of Orang Asli preschool children were examined. Factors facilitating and inhibiting the social interactions were identified using the application of Rogoff's three foci of analyses and series of semi-structured interviews with Malaysian preschool teachers and Orang Asli preschool children. Rogoff's Sociocultural Theory and the three foci of analyses may present a more and thorough view of indigenous children's understanding of an educational computer environment.

Volunteering is a transformative learning activity that involves the contribution of manpower and intellectual support to the community and humanities projects. The objective of the study is to examine the level of involvement and motives for youth participation in volunteer activities. This study uses a quantitative approach with a descriptive design through a questionnaire. A survey was developed using Volunteers Function Inventory (VIF) instrument to assess motivational function towards volunteers. Sampling studies involved 200 respondents aged between 16 to 30 years. The motivational factors of volunteer involvement, namely, value function, understanding function, career function, social function, protection function, and improvement function have been identified as contributing elements to youth involvement in volunteer activities. The findings showed that 76.5% of youths had volunteered to participate in the volunteering activities. 73.2% of the respondents had the desire to join volunteering activities again. The study indicated that the highest motive of youth involvement in activities volunteerism is an understanding function (M=28.12; SD=4.18). Finally, most volunteers had gained and sustain knowledge, skills, and abilities in volunteering activities. This study has important implications for the theoretical, practical, and policy towards the involvement of youth in a volunteering program in Malaysia.

Purpose of the study: This study examined the predictors of intention in career development, specifically the intention of applying for promotion among Malaysian excellent teacher candidates. Methodology: The premise of the theoretical analyses in this study was based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. The correlational study design was employed to determine the relationship among the variables that ascertain any prediction towards the intention to apply for promotion. 500 respondents were sampled and consist of male (226) and female (274) teachers who are qualified to apply for promotion. Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) was performed to test and validate the measurement model. Main Findings: This study had ascertained that gender does moderate relationships among the study's independent variables and the dependent variable. The result also indicates that the theory of planned behavior is applicable in predicting intention to apply for promotion. For teachers in Malaysia, the intention to apply for promotion will increase if the expectation of others towards applying for promotion also positively increase. Applications of this study: Gender-related specific assessment can be applied within the teachers’ performance appraisal system, particularly for the evaluation on ‘Guru Cemerlang’ or Excellent Teacher Award by the Ministry of Education in Malaysia. Novelty/Originality of this study: There is a scarcity of recent studies on the intention of Malaysian teachers to apply for promotion. By using the novel approach of Theory of Planned Behavior and the combination of structural equation modeling analyses, gender was found to moderate the relationship between the expectation of others and their intention to apply for promotion.

This study proposed to investigate the power of personality and skills competencies of Iban population as the largest ethnic group in Sarawak. The influence of content and process on initiatives to empower the Iban women community in Sarawak will be an indicator of the measurement and evaluation of the program to the empowerment of Dayak women. This concept paper aims to critically review and identify gaps in the current literature on community empowerment, personality traits and skill competencies and come out with expected outcomes and recommendations for future research. This study applies a quantitative approach with a descriptive design through the questionnaire form for purpose of data collection. This study investigates five dimensions of the Big Five personality namely openness to experience, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. This study also investigates three dimensions of skills competencies namely knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The findings of personality traits and skills competencies will be transformed into profiling data of Iban Women and proposed new initiatives and programs to empower Iban women. Overall, the findings will highlight and explain further the personality traits of Iban women, and the skills possessed for the market-appropriate job. Future studies are recommended to include more indicators like entrepreneur for enhancing Iban women empowerment initiatives in Sarawak.

This study examined the relationship between demographic factors and the intention of teachers in applying for promotion. Demographic factors and gender were correlated with the dependent variable of intention to apply for promotion. A correlational study design was employed to determine the relationship among the variables that ascertain any prediction towards intention to apply for promotion. A total number of 226 of male and 274 female teachers were sampled among those who are qualified to apply for promotion. This study had shown that gender does moderate relationship among the study's independent variables and the dependent variable. For teachers in Malaysia, the intention to apply for promotion will increase if expectation of others towards applying for promotion also positively increase. There is a need for the educational sector to examine the influence of the demographic factors of gender in the appraisals on career development of teachers in Malaysia.