The government is being urged to turn 3,000 temporary posts of welfare assistants into permanent jobs before funding for the programme runs out next year.
The positions of welfare assistants, formally known as programme workers, were created in 2008 as a temporary measure to ease unemployment among the young, which was more than five times the overall jobless rate at the time.
But the scheme for youngsters aged 15 to 29 - which costs HK$100 million a year - will end in March if the government sticks to its deadline.
'The temporary measure not only offers a relief to youth unemployment but also enhances the employment opportunity of youngsters as they all learn a lot from it,' said Charles Chan Kin-hung, chairman of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service's specialised committee on children and youth services.
The council, an umbrella group for 320 non-government organisations, said welfare organisations did not see these programme workers as 'purely workers'.
'We see the employment as training for them. We want them to learn more via the jobs, that the monthly salary is not their only reward.' Chan said.
With a monthly salary of HK$6,000 to HK$8,000, their main task is to help social workers in non-governmental welfare agencies to organise activities. A welfare-assistant worker will usually find a permanent job in various industries of the labour market after working at the temporary post for six months to one year.