It has been a trying three weeks of unlearning and relearning for 15 journalist hopefuls who came to us for a taste of Journalism 101, Malaysiakini-style!

Scores of applications were sent, but only a handful was picked to undergo the grueling inaugural three-week crash course on the finer points of journalism.

According to malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan, the intensive course was aimed at training budding journalists in independent investigative journalism and breaking away from the prevalent Malaysian trend of stenographic reporting.

Sounds a bit too serious, but has it gone down well with the trainees?

For a randomly selected group of five trainees, it was all cheers.

Eye opener

While textbook theory and case studies was the norm in university courses, the five lasses were glad that the training incorporate highly interactive lectures on down-to-earth and eye-opening social issues, such as gender, human rights and politics.

University Putra Malaysia (UPM) graduate Ng Shu Ching, 24, was pleased that her fellow trainees were equally keen about the course, thus providing added motivation.

Theory aside, the trainees were bombarded with numerous challenging assignments, as they would be expected from them in the actual malaysiakini newsroom.

"What took me three years to learn in university was covered in three weeks," quipped Chew Siew Fong, 23, a graduate from University Putra Malaysia.

You're hired

Gan is pleased by the enthusiasm shown by the trainees and said that selected works from the trainees would be published next week.

"This is part of our recruitment exercise. From our experience, it is more beneficial to malaysiakini to run pre-employment courses in order to find the best of the best to work for the organisation," said Gan.

While the three-week training-cum-interview process resembles popular reality programme The Apprentice , where not one, but two trainees would be hearing the words "You're hired!" from Gan.

The two would be given automatic three-month placement as cadet journalists in malaysiakini. Should they perform well, they stand a chance to be given further training overseas.