‘Have smart partnership’ to help released prisoners get jobs

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Abdul Kadir (second left) presents a certificate to one of the students while Ajidin (right) and Zurina look on.

KUCHING: State prisons directors throughout the country were asked to have smart partnership programme with potential employers to help prisoners get jobs upon their release.

Prisons Department director (prisoners’ management) Abdul Kadir Rais said as the department aimed to expand the programme nationwide, every state prison director plays an important role to ensure its success.

“We at the head office would like to urge all the state prison department directors to strive towards this effort,” he said at a ceremony to hand over certificates to Henry Gurney School students and other prisoners at Puncak Borneo Prison near here yesterday.

“I believed, with the current team of dedicated officers in Sarawak, we can achieve this goal,” he said.

Forty prisoners received their skills certificates after completing a two-day basic air-condition installation and maintenance and grill welding courses.

Abdul Kadir explained that under the programme, employers provide vocational or skills training to the inmates while serving their sentences.

He said after the release, those who have undergone the training would be given the opportunity to work with the company.

He said currently there are two companies having such collaboration with the Prisons Department in Kuala Lumpur – Metro Bus and a spa company.

“It is this kind of collaboration that we are looking forward to in our effort to expand this programme and help prisoners get jobs upon their their release,” he said.

Abdul Kadir said prisons departments throughout the country have been providing vocational and skills training for prisoners since 2012.

He said for this year alone at least 1,945 prisoners had acquired skills certificates.

He noted that overall from 2012 to 2017, more than 12,000 prisoners nationwide had received vocational and skills certificates.

“This is one of our efforts to give second chance to the prisoners so that when they are released, they can find suitable jobs in the market with the certificates they have.

“We believed, every human being deserved a second chance,” he said.

Some of the courses available for prisoners include welding, tailoring and handicraft.

He said the department had introduced skills training in frozen food which it planned to expand to Kajang prison.

Abdul Kadir said anybody involved in the basic vocational and skills training will be issued with certificates as without the certificates, people may not believed that you have the necessary skills or training in that field.

“We believed that the vocational and skills certificate will help them when they return to society after they serving their sentences,” he said.

Sarawak Prison director Ajidin Salleh and Kota Samarahan Skill Ttraining Institute director Zurina Md Aming were among those also present.