Indian youth dropouts urged to learn skills to be employable

About 40 percent of the more than 880,000 Indian youths who have dropped out of schools, have been urged to enhance their skills to fill job opportunities in various sectors in the country.

Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk M. Saravanan said, if one is to look back at history, the Indians in Malaysia before and after independence, despite having no education, still played an important role as human resources in the service sector, whether public or private.

"Today, we see all these opportunities being taken over by foreign workers, and if the Indian youth don't get to pursue their education or drop out at form three or five, probably within five to 10 years they will become irrelevant and may be forced to leave their homes to look for jobs in other countries.

"That's why I ask them (the youth) to seek opportunities through the special unit SEDIC (Socio-Economic Development of Indian Community), National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) and so on," he told reporters after launching a three-day seminar on Leadership Identity (high-risk students) organised by SEDIC in the Prime Minister's Department in collaboration with the Indian Community Welfare Association for the Merbok constituency, at Aimst University, Semeling, here Friday, attended by 150 participants.

Meanwhile, Saravanan said the issue of lack of employment for dropouts was not only faced by Indian youths but also Malays and other races as all sectors were now dominated by foreign workers.

"To me, the issue of 3D (dirty, dangerous, difficult) does not exist among the Indian youth as many are involved in the scrap metal business," he added.