Sim said the hope of lasting change was the reason for his ministry’s Malaysian Indian skills initiative by which 1,000 young Malaysian Indian youths will be trained and placed in skilled jobs such as programmers, engineers and technicians.

He said some people have proposed that the programme be extended to benefit up to 10,000 participants, but only offer short-term courses, such as motorcycle repair and baking.

“Those are good skills, but after decades of such small programmes, have we truly changed lives?” he said at a Deepevali celebration jointly organised by his ministry and the Social Security Organisation (Socso) here last night.

“Enough is enough. To be very honest, I think it’s time to stop giving ‘small tokens’ to our Indian brothers and sisters. We want to change a whole generation.”

Sim spoke of several success stories under the skills programme: among them was Madhuumithaa Simon, 26, who came from a poor family and now works as a mechanical engineer at Jabil, earning RM3,500 a month after completing a wafer fabrication course.

The minister added that he monitors the programme’s reports every month to ensure that every sen spent leads to real change.

Also present at the event was Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow, who thanked Sim and the federal government for continued support and allocations to the state.

Chow said he was particularly looking forward to the setting up of a Socso rehabilitation centre in Seberang Perai Tengah, as announced in the 2026 budget.