Govt to concentrate on NS trainees with jobs

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Employed youths often avoid participating in training programmeKUALA LUMPUR: The Defence Ministry will give emphasis on those who are working and having problems to persuade them to join the National Service (NS) training programme when directed to do so.

OFF TO NS CAMP: Ahmad Zahid flags off a group of NS trainees at Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil. – Bernama photo

OFF TO NS CAMP: Ahmad Zahid flags off a group of NS trainees at Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil. – Bernama photo

Its minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said they were placed in the third and fourth groups in every series of the NS training programme but on most occasions, they avoided from joining the compulsory training.

He said that during the past four series of the NS training programmes, the third and fourth groups frequently posed challenges to the organisers compared to those placed in groups one and two.

“The first group does not give any problem because they (trainees) have recently completed their schooling. The ones givingproblems are the intakes for groups three and four who often avoided from participating in the training programme,” he told reporters after dispatching trainees of the NS Training Programme Series 7/2010 at the Bukit Jalil Stadium grounds, here yesterday.

Ahmad Zahid said that in order to tackle the problem, the ministry was adopting several different approaches in getting closer to the youths to encourage them to become national heroes and heroines after completing the training programmes.

“The approach adopted (for groups three and four) is rather different from the other groups, that is the psychological approach. This is because most of them are already working, so it’s rather difficult to educate them,” he said.

He said the NS training programme provided trainers who had education in the field of psychology to approach these groups.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said a total of 140,000 participants were selected to undergo the NS Training Programme for the 7/2010 Series with 38,000 becoming the first group to undergo the three-month training.

A total of 14,238 trainees from Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya began to report for the training programme at 102 pick up points throughout the country and were taken to the training camps using 355 buses. The minister said the remaining 14,570 trainees from Perlis, Labuan and the other states will report for the programme today while 9,214 trainees will report tomorrow.

The first group in the series had involved 939 buses for the journey to the training camps nationwide, 44 flights for the movement of trainees from the peninsula to Sabah and Sarawak and vice-versa while eight ferries were used to take the trainees to the Kuala Baram jetty, Kuah jetty, Kuala Perlis, Sibu jetty and the Menumbuk Ferry Terminal. – Bernama