Imphal, December 07 2010: The saying that being a "matric fail" or "not a matric pass" is synonymous to being a failure in life does not hold true any longer.

One's educational achievement need not decide one's success in life.

Even if one has not been able to pass the tenth exam, one can still earn a very decent livelihood by working in multinational companies as plastic technicians.

Any student, irrespective of whether he or she passed the matric exam, can enroll at the Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology (CIPET) and do a six month course on plastic machine operation free of cost and become a plastic technician.

This course is sponsored by DoNER ministry and is conducted at CIPET.

Training for the first three months will be held at CIPET and for the remaining three months the trainees will be sent to one of the well known plastic companies anywhere in the rest of the country.

Any student taking up this training need not spend a single paisa.

Fooding and lodging during the training period will be taken care of.

The travel, accommodation and all expenses related to the training for the last three months will also be taken care by the government.

Over and above this, a monthly stipend of more than ' 5000 will also be paid.

This vocational training was specially implemented to enable students in northeast India who could not complete their formal education till the tenth class to become financially independent.

Irom Ranjit, CIPET's training co-coordinator, said, "CIPET, with the help of DoNER Ministry, have been conducting this six months training course for over three years now.

So far 193 people who undertook this training are at present working in various companies outside Manipur.

Once a person gets a job in a plastic manufacturing company, he/she can rise up to supervisor level" .

Among the various similar institutes under the central government's chemical and fertilizer ministry, the one at Takyel is one of the forerunners in producing the best students.

CIPET began its successful run at shaping the future of many young students since its inception in 1988.Many of the local students of CIPET who had passed the diploma, post diploma, post-graduate diploma, post-diploma CAT/CAM courses are successfully working at various MNCs in and outside the country.

Some of the companies they are working in are LMT, Mosaer Baer, Supreme Plastic, Polyshed, Cello Plastic, VIP, etc.

Many people from Manipur who are working in Congo, Hong Kong, Europe, etc are earning from a lakh to two lakh rupees monthly.

Speaking on the trend of learning plastic technology as a vocational course, Ranjit said, "When CIPET Imphal first came up, most of the students were from outside the state.

Till now there is very limited awareness among the parents and guardians of how their children can easily avail of the benefits of courses that can be learnt easily with very little monetary expense and with mostly guaranteed employment" .

The coordinator further said that many awareness programmes were held at various places in Manipur to create awareness of the long and short term courses that the institute offer.

CIPET Imphal not only provides training on plastic technology, it also encourages plastic entrepreneurs.

The institute gives facility to the plastic products manufacturers who want to sell their finished products.

Those desiring to become a plastic entrepreneur can do so by taking part in this institute's IDP programme.

An entrepreneur can use the machines and other facilities at the institute by getting their own raw material and paying a nominal fee to the institute.

Because of the availability of 24 hours power supply, entrepreneurs can take advantage of the institute to further their business.

On the increasing fear in general public about the harmful effect of using plastic on the environment, Ranjit said that there is a lack of understanding on the usage of plastic among the people.

Till now an alternative material to plastic has not been found in terms of its use value.

Harmful effects have come about due to our failure to use plastic properly.

In most of the developed countries plastic products are used extensively yet there's no environmental pollution.

This is an example of the level of awareness of those people.

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