About 180 participants comprising high-risk youths, school drop-outs and school-leavers successfully completed various technical and vocational courses held at 47 Pusat GiatMARA centers peninsula-wide.

Pusat GiatMARA is the skills training management arm of Mara, a state agency involved in Bumiputra development.

The certificate presentation ceremony by MIC's social arm, the Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS), was held at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Besides the parents and guardians of some participants, the ceremony was also attended by GiatMARA trainers and officials from the respective centers.

This is the second batch to receive certificates in various disciplines such as automotive, welding/painting, electrical wiring, metal fabrication, hair-dressing/make-up, freezer/air-conditioning, tailoring for men/women and printing technology.

The first batch had 142 trainees signing up in January last year, and 82 of them successfully graduated six months later.

YSS has also initiated a special project to monitor nine trainees for high-risk youths at one of the GiatMARA centers in Kedah, involving six-month courses.

YSS Youth Development Department head Victor Joseph said the foundation had paid for the nine trainees' food, lodging and a full-time officer.

He said each trainee is given a RM100 accommodation and monthly allowance.

'Plug into the system'

"Besides technical training, trainees are also exposed to the social skill components which includes religious activities and music jamming sessions for therapeutic purposes," he said when met after the certificate presentation ceremony.

"For the first time, Malaysian Indian youths can enroll into Mara technical courses, a concept that helps overcome issues facing school drop-outs, high-risk youths and limited official opportunities for Malaysian Indian youths."

He said the skills training initiative, dubbed 'Plug Into The System', is proving to be effective in preventing problem youths or potential delinquents from getting involved in social ills.

Joseph said 256 new applications have been made for this year's January intake spanning between six and nine months, well within the 650-quota given last January.

"This programme is also about having social justice and a social-safety net by the government," he added.

The downside, he said, was the lack of local volunteers at the respective centers to help monitor the success rate of trainers systematically.

Acknowledging some hiccups in the implementation of the YSS-GiatMARA initiative, he said some people thought that the programme does not have high commercial value.

"Yes, there are some matters which need some ironing out such as the level of efficiency and the dissemination mechanism for related information," he explained.

Sentul district police chief A Thaiveegan, who briefly addressed the trainees said about 400 Malaysian Indians were arrested throughout last year, mostly for violent crimes.

"This marks a slight increase in involvement of Indian youths in criminal activities. However, the figures should also be subjected to the population breakdown within the Sentul district."

Not stupid or useless

YSS executive director Dr Denison Jeyasooria said opportunities like these were necessary.

"We need specific targeting of boys and girls who cannot cope with the academic route of our education system," he said.

"Not that these youths are stupid or useless, it's just that they are more in tune with skills-orientation programmes which are more practical and on a hands-on basis."

He believes that such skill training programmes are a good alternative route for the specific target youth groups.

"The government needs to target such youths and instead of ignoring them as hopeless cases or beyond help, it should re-channel their interests," said Denison.

"This was where personal evaluation becomes absolutely necessary."

He said there was an urgent need to look at underachievers in the school system focusing on potential drop-outs at the lower secondary level to see if they are coping well within the system or fast losing interest.