28,000 to start apprenticeships

JAKARTA (JP): About 28 high school students will participate in the apprenticeship programs organized by the city education office to teach practical skills during the current month-long holiday.

They have been channeled to various companies where they will work from June 19 to July 15. More than 50,000 students registered for the program but only 28,000 were admitted.

"We wanted all of them to be placed but the opportunities are limited and we cannot force companies to admit all of them," the spokesman for the education office Hadis Hadiahnegara said Tuesday.

He said that some of the students were admitted to do apprenticeships in government offices.

The program is also meant to focus their leisure time and energies on productive purposes so that they will avoid doing "negative things" that cause social problems. (29)