PNGFM Limited farewelled a total of seven (7) enthusiastic and vibrant youths under the 2024 Urban Youth Employment Project II (UYEP) in which six of them successfully completed their internship program at PNGFM. The youths were farewelled on Friday the 10th of January after completing a 65-day internship program in which they got to experience for the first time working in an organization. With no work experience, the youths were privileged enough to work in the different departments of PNGFM including Sales, IT and Engineering, PNG HAUSBUNG (news department), Total Events Company (TEC), Finance and Admin department. Spokesperson and UYEP youth, Clive Maion, shared sentiments as one of the youths and trainees who was privileged enough to work at PNGFM. “As an unemployed youth, I heard about this project initiative to help youths like me have a purpose in life and with that I decided to apply by filling out a form provided for us by UYEP to have us registered. From there, we were then shortlisted for an interview before carrying out the different training courses.” “The first training was a 5-day course called Champions for Change followed by the second course called Basic Life Training Skills which was carried out for ten days. After successfully completing that part of the training course, we then did a 30-days Civil Works which is just general works carried out in NCD where we did projects like building footpaths, stonewalls and doing cementing.” After successfully completing all three of these training courses, the youths were then eligible for a 65-day internship program where over 300 youths were categorized in different groups and from there, the seven youths from the UYEP intakes of 2024 were selected to work at PNGFM. According to Maion, little did he know how PNGFM operates apart from the obvious which is talking and interacting on air. For each of the interns, they took turns working in each department for two weeks before rotating to the next, from which they gained some fair knowledge. “Working for the first time in an organization was scary, but when we joined PNGFM, we felt like we were one of them (the employees). They treated us equally; taught us well and with that, I have learnt a lot personally as PNGFM made our internship run smoothly since we started in October.” “Now when I decide to apply for a job later, I now have the confidence and a fair knowledge as to working at an organization. This is also good for my reference as it will now add a bonus to my CV and be able to move onto the next chapter.” In addition to this, Maion personally expressed joy working specifically in the Sales, IT and Engineering and in the PNG HAUSBUNG department. His biggest highlight in Sales was learning about how paid advertisements are run on air, which the company earns and makes money from. “As for PNG HAUSBUNG, I got to go out with other reporters from the newsroom to collect stories, do interviews and from there, I had the opportunity to write my own stories which were published on the PNG HAUSBUNG website. “I was privileged enough to go through an opportunity like this, and with that I am grateful to UYEP for this great initiative in giving youths like us a second chance in life and to PNGFM for the great experience in working in an organization.”