Enhancing youth’s ability to capture opportunities
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"I did not know what choices I had before. Everyone seemed to be studying to get into university, so I thought I should do the same. I tried to get a bachelor’s degree in business administration and become a white collar.” However, Alex didn’t do well in the DSE examination and failed to enter university.
The traditional definition of success is often based on academic qualifications, which for some young people can be very stressful. But in today’s society, is this conventional assessment of abilities still appropriate? Or is it more effective to help young people unleash their full potential?
One of the programmes initiated by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust is CLAP for Youth @ JC (CLAP). Through cross-sectoral collaboration, CLAP aims to build young people’s competence to make informed and meaningful life and career choices in alignment with their values, skills and knowledge. It also aims to broaden society’s definition of “success”, “work” and “talent” to create a more enabling environment. To this end, “CV360®” is a key innovation, facilitating better talent-matching by assessing a person’s core abilities beyond paid work and helping employers evaluate qualities needed. This widens the talent pool and helps individuals better fulfil their potential.
CLAP’s social workers learned that Alex likes to play video games and encouraged him to explore his strengths and participate in eSports training activities. Alex gained a deeper understanding of the gaming industry and realised that the eSports universe was much more than video games. CV360® enabled Alex to assess his interests and strengths based on his non-paid experience and he started to think of turning his interest into a career. “I prefer a job related to gaming activities rather than an office job. I started to study for an associate degree in business administration again in the hope of realising my ‘gaming dream’ of combining business with my love of gaming.”
Promoting technology and inspiring creativity
Apart from helping young people discover their career paths, equipping them with the right skills is also important. To enhance young people’s digital and innovative capabilities, the Club’s Charities Trust launched the CoolThink @ JC educational programme, which helps schools incorporate computational thinking in their curriculum. Upper primary school students are encouraged to practise computational concepts and develop their technological abilities, creativity and logical-thinking skills.
In recent years, many students have excelled in the CoolThink @ JC Competition and shown their ability to apply what they have learnt to solve problems. For example, three primary five students noticed that their mothers often rushed home when it rained to take in the laundry. This led the students to develop a ‘smart drying rack’ with temperature, humidity and rain sensors as well as a bluetooth device. When the rain sensor was activated, the rack would automatically retract. A message would also be sent to the user’s mobile phone to confirm this action. If the user indicated there was no need to remove the clothes, the rack would extend back out. The smart drying rack mobile app can also be linked to the Hong Kong Observatory to advise users of the latest weather condition. The invention showcases children’s ingenuity and ability to use technology to solve problems.
Cultivating social innovators
To encourage young people to think ‘out of the box’ and inspire them to become social innovators, there’s also a variety of projects which provide them diversified and sustainable learning platforms.
The Jockey Club Make a Difference Social Lab provides opportunities for young people to drive innovation in public services. Through community participation, the Lab enables young people to come up with small-scale, practical solutions to improve public life. Participants have designed parks, markets and libraries, as well as encouraged “Kaifong” (neighbours) to walk more.
Nurturing the next generation is key to society’s long-term development. The Club will continue to fund and support programmes to enable young people to value their individuality, make the best use of their abilities and develop resilience in the face of challenges.
One of the world’s top ten charity donors, the Club’s Charities Trust is committed to the betterment of Hong Kong and encourages collaboration and innovative thinking to address different social needs. In recent years, the Club has focused on four strategic areas, namely “Youth”, “the Elderly”, “Sports” and “Arts, Culture & Heritage”.