WORK READINESS PROGRAM

What is Life Skills 4 Youth?

Life Skills 4 Youth is a "Work Readiness program" which aims to bridge the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged young men and women and their more advantaged peers by preparing them to face the challenging and highly competitive workforce environment. It also aims to provide these men and women with the necessary soft skills that will enable them to become useful,productive employees.

Partners

Life Skills 4 Youth is a collaboration with J.P. Morgan and Education Development Center, a – US based non-profit organisation.

EDC was our main project partner and was instrumental in providing the curriculum and conducting the ToT workshops.

J.P. Morgan was the project sponsor.

YWCA- VTOC provided the initial group of young women for training.

Master Weld Academy provided the initial group of young men.

Training was conducted at their premises in Kuala Lumpur and Puchong respectively.

Why Life Skills 4 Youth?

Findings By:

Malaysia's skilled workforce comprises only 28% and is insufficient to meet the demands of the local industry. Youth from underprivileged backgrounds who are academically weak often drop out of school after Form 3 (age 16).They lack the necessary skills, knowledge and motivation to find a job that matches their interest and aptitude and often end up in poorly paid jobs

How does Life Skills 4 Youth work?

This programme involves 52 hours of training in 7 modules including Personal Development, Communication Skills, Work Habits and Conduct including how to write a CV / Application letter, Teamwork and Leadership, Safety and Health at Work, Rights and Responsibilities at the workplace including the Malaysian Labour Law and Financial Literacy.

At the end of training, students will sit for a written test but they will also be assessed on their classroom participation and homework assignments.

What did we do?

This project was first mooted at the beginning of 2013 when SID met up with EDC (Education Development Centre) who has had success in creating work readiness programs in developing countries.

Next we approached J.P. Morgan for funding of the project. Several project proposals were submitted. J.P. Morgan has been a staunch supporter of SID's Education projects for the past 8 years.

In July 2013, EDC together with SID and other industry partners held a design workshop to localise and adapt EDC's Work Ready Now ! Curriculum. SID also arranged to translate the participant's manual into the local Malay language.

CURRICULUM ADAPTATION WORKSHOP

LifeSkills4Youth – LOCALISATION OF CURRICULUM

Localisation of curriculum illustrations by unemployed youth translation of participants' handbook to Bahasa Malaysia

SET UP OF SID VOCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER

To support the program, SID set – up its Vocational Resource Centre with funds from its 2013 Charity Premier, generous donors and furniture donated by J.P. Morgan.

LAUNCH OF SID VOCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER

10 November 2013

The SID Vocational Resource Centre was launched by Mr Steve Clayton, Country Officer J.P. Morgan on 10 October 2013.

Commencement Of Work Readiness Program

Training Of Trainers [Batch 1 - Inaugural trainers][4 November to 17 November 2013]

LifeSkills4Youth – PILOT WRN @YWCA-VTOC

11 – 20 November 2013

Kumpulan Anggerik : 25 young women adults

Kumpulan Bougainvilla : 18 young women adults (low literacy level)

LifeSkills4Youth – 3RD Batch WRN @ YWCA-VTOC

2 – 7 December 2013

Kumpulan Carnation : 26 young women adults

Training of Trainers Batch 2 & Training of Master Trainers @ SIDVRC

6 - 11 January 2014

LifeSkills4Youth – 4TH Batch @ SID VRC

19 January – 16 February 2014

Kumpulan Dahlia : 17 young men and women [Form 5 leavers]

[Only 12 graduated]

LifeSkills4Youth – 5TH Batch @ YWCA VTOC

3 March – 13 May 2014

Kumpulan Edelweiss : 20 young women (low literacy Group)

Group Activity

Kumpulan Edelweiss : 20 young women adults

LifeSkills4Youth – 6TH BATCH @ MASTER WELD ACADEMY

4 March – 17 April 2014

Kumpulan Frangipanni : 25 young men

Graduates of Frangipanni

LifeSkills4Youth – Federation Best Practice Award

In 2014, LifeSkills4Youth was awarded the Federation Best Practice Award by Soroptimist International South West Pacific

LifeSkills4Youth – 17TH - 20TH BATCHES @ YWCA - VTOC November- December 2015

November- December 2015

Kumpulan Quince, Rose, Sunflower & Tulip : 90 young women

LifeSkills4Youth – 22ND & 23RD BATCHES @ MONTFORT YOUTH CENTRE, MELAKA

January 2016

Kumpulan Waterlily & Xeranthenum : 49 young men

Graduates

LifeSkills4Youth – 24TH BATCH @ MASTER WELD ACADEMY

February 2016

Kumpulan Yasmin : 20 young men

Graduates

LifeSkills4Youth – 25TH BATCH @ MY SKILLS ACADEMY, PORT KLANG : PILOT LOW LITERACY CURRICULUM

MARCH 2015

Kumpulan Zinnia : 33 young men

GRADUATES OF GROUP

LifeSkills4Youth – 26TH BATCH @ MASTER WELD ACADEMY

April 2015

Kumpulan Albatross : 20 young men

Group Activities

LifeSkills4Youth – 27TH BATCH @ KOLEJ VIS MECHATRONIC

APRIL 2015

Kumpulan Bluebird : 20 young men

TRACK RECORD

• As the objectives of the program are to prepare the economically disadvantaged and academically below average youths to be ready to go to work
-Since the start of LifeSkills4Youth program in Dec 2013, we have trained a total of 580 youths up to April 2015]
# total no. of batches to April 2016 : 27 [Each batch comprises 16 – 26 youths]
# conducted a total of 624 training hours in 2015.
# in 2015, total no. of boys trained – 150 ; total no. of girls trained – 80.


• Based on feedback from the vocational schools, over 65% of the youths who graduate from our LifeSkills4Youth program find jobs within 6 months after they graduate from their skills training.


• In 2015, LifeSkills4Youth received accreditation from the Ministry Of Human Resources HRDF.