Wan Arnidawati Wan Abdullah
Wan Arnidawati Wan Abdullah joined the Institute in 2009 and was awarded her PhD in Employment Research in 2013. She returned to her role as Assistant Director of Labour at Ministry of Human Resources, Malaysia after completion of her doctorate.
Following a Bachelor’s at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, she completed her Master’s degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the National University of Malaysia, where she also worked for two years as a lecturer cum counsellor (at Kurniawan College). She then joined the Malaysian government in 2001 as an Assistant Director of Labour, a role which involved policy making, drafting, amendment and administration of labour laws. Her work also involved making presentations on labour laws and employment issues in seminars organized by the government, employers’ organization and non-governmental organizations, in addition to providing advisory services on employment matters to the public. In this last job, she led the “Promotion for Employment for the Special Group (Women, The Disabled People, The Elderly People and the Young Person) Unit”. This required her to support programmes designed to increase the levels of participation in employment among these groups in the private sector.
Research Interests
Career development, Career path, Labour market and social policy, Employment support for the disabled.
How far have they come? Learning difficulties and integrated employment in Malaysia
Many studies in developed countries have emphasized the significant influence of integrated (or ‘open’) as opposed to sheltered employment on the inclusion of persons with learning difficulties into the mainstream community. Subsequently, with the emerging disability policy and practice, Malaysia as one of the developing countries which possesses a growing population of persons with learning difficulties recently started to promote this form of employment with the hope for similar outcomes.
Nida won runner-up for the Faculty of Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Poster Competition (May, 2011).