I heard Dr S.Subra talking about this yesterday, and its in the papers today. It seems that of the 900 seats offered nationwide to Indian youths to pursue a skills course for free, with accommodation, meals and RM100 monthly for expenditure, only 249 enrolled for its July intake (The Star). That means its about nine Indian students for each of the 26 Human Resources Training Institutes (HRTI) (a.k.a ILJTM) nationwide under the purview of the Manpower Department.

According to Dr S.Subra, opportunities were being created for Indian youths to acquire skills and secure jobs with good wages but they chose ignore it, even though plenty of advertisements are taken out in newspapers (Tamil papers too).

Dr Subramaniam said it was sad to see youths wasting their potential, energy, creativeness and power to build a better future for themselves by learning a skill.

“Indian youths must understand that foreign firms are setting up businesses in Penang, Selangor and Johor and those with innovative skills are the ones who can secure jobs with good prospects,” he said.

According to him, among the factors for the lack of interest is (i) the poor perception of skills-based employment and (ii) the fact that the youths preferred academic courses (NST).

“Maybe they are not aware that employment opportunities in the skills sector are more than in the academic sector.”

He said usually 80 to 90 per cent of ILJTM graduates were able to find work within three to four months of finishing their courses.

Dr Subramaniam said Malaysian Industrial Development Authority statistics showed that a total of 40,000 jobs were created in the first six months of the year through local and foreign investments.

He said through the courses, participants could become entrepreneurs or experts in the skills acquired.

“There are Malaysian welders who are highly skilled and have had offers and work in the oil and gas industry in West Asia and are paid well,” he said.

I guess the two factors are quite true. Coupled with lack of self-confidence, lack of proficiency in English and Malay, and possibility of unemployment also play a role in youths ignoring such jobs. Majority of the trainees in these institutes constitute of one race only, and they are assisted in securing jobs in GLCs, the enormous number of bumiputra contractors/firms, and goverment agencies. Even the Chinese youths also choose to stay away, with MCA trying hard to convince the career prospects of skills-based training.

What MIC/YSS can do is to continue its efforts, and perhaps to add value to its services by providing counseling, helping to create network between industry and the trainees so that can offer jobs faster, get some success story candidates to share their experience, and provide support group for students in the institutes so that the students don’t feel alone or ignored.

Secondly, they should target the parents. I think a segment of the parents are still in the old mindset. They don’t want their children to be away from them or to choose their own career. MIC/YSS can organise trips to these institutes for parents, or have an open day at this places, so that the community can know more about the facilities and environment there.

Thirdly, there should efforts to avoid these institutes into becoming like local universities which are slanted towards certain race and religion only. This is undoubtedly hard, but I guess this is also another reason why such institutes are shunned. Simple things like not serving beef, practicing vegetarianism, putting God images in room, etc., should not be be banned or ignored.