Challenge

University students in Myanmar need support preparing for and fiding employment opportunities.

Goal

Create a space where university students can discover who they are, develop life skills and connect to employment opportunities in Myanmar.

Team

Htet Yin Tun

Background

Early in the Design-Thinking for Community Engagement course, change agents identified “livelihoods” as a core value within the ecosystem of a citizen in Myanmar. During a 3-week project cycle, student teams conducted research to uncover the hidden needs, fears, desires and challenges associated with finding employment opportunities after graduating university. 

After interviewing over 100 university students, change agents developed Archetypes to communicate the diverse perspectives, behaviors and attitudes among Mawlamyine University students. 

Research findings showed that there is a significant gap between what students learn in university and what skills/knowledge they are able to apply to a job. Many students need to enroll in costly courses after graduating in order to develop basic job skills like English language, computer, communication, administration and accounting skills. In addition, poor communication and access to local jobs has forced many youth to seek employment in neighboring countries like Thailand, Korea and Singapore. 

Methodology

To better understand how to prepare university students for jobs. Htet Yin Tun built upon the early prototypes of her fellow change agents by:

• Interviewing 9 local entrepreneurs, 33 university students and 5 faculty from Mawlamyine University
• Developed and played a Ranking Game with local entrepreneurs, university students and faculty from Mawlamyine University, which prioritized the jobs skills
• Held participatory design sessions with Mawlamyine University faculty and students to co-create self-discovery and job skills workshops.

Prototypes

Local Job App (low-fidelity prototype) 

Volunteering Excursion Trip 15 university students

Entrepreneur Talks with 12 local business owners 

Self-Discovery workshop with 10 university students

Job Skills Workshop with 16 university students

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Business, Civil Society + Government

PARTNERS

Mawlamyine University

Myanmar Youth Entrepreneurship Association

MDG Company

Mawlamyine Beauty Salon

Ramanyarattha Education Center

MYMA Center

Okay Internet Cafe

Swiss Development Agency

Ngwe Moe Hotel

Pyae Sone Steel Shop

Mr. Safe 

RVi Centre Mawlamyine 

Mon Youth Educated Organization 

NEXT STEPS

pointB is working with change agent, Htet Yin Tun, to continue developing a Student Development Center located at Mawlamyine University. This project is focused on co-creating student-led space where university students may access self-discovery and job skills workshops, local job opportunities, entrepreneur and job fair events, peer mentoring and life skills training.