A helping hand for jobless youth
These days, even university graduates are having a tough time finding jobs. You can imagine how hard life must be for low-skilled, less-educated young people.
Gary Tang Leung-shun, supervisor of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, felt this year's budget put more emphasis on promoting employment opportunities for degree-holders.
This has put youngsters with lower academic standards at a disadvantage, Mr Tang said. 'There are fewer employment opportunities for low-income, less-educated youths even in prosperous times,' he said.
'But in a downturn, they are worse off because they're competing with higher-skilled, educated people for the same low- to medium-skilled jobs.'
The government has launched various programmes to help people find jobs. But, according to Mr Tang, some young people are not aware of the employment opportunities.
The federation has launched the One-Stop Service with the aim of helping jobless youth. Through this scheme, they can learn about vacancies in government and the social services sector.
Meanwhile, job fairs are being held across the territory, while youth associations and charities are organising training and work-experience programmes.
Youth Job Fair 2009, jointly organised by Christian Action and the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme Office of the Labour Department, was held in Tsim Sha Tsui last Thursday.
There were 2,000 vacancies on offer in 28 corporations.
Around 80 per cent of the vacancies were full-time positions, with a monthly salary between HK$5,000 and HK$10,000. The academic requirement for a majority of the posts was Form Five or below. Vacancies included customer service officers, salespersons, travel agents, waiters, coffee makers and clerks.
Similar recruitment events were held in Tuen Muen and Yau Tong, with 700 and 2,500 vacancies, respectively.
