A step forward is far better than standing still
14 June 2015
This time of the year marks the end of examination season and the critical moment when many secondary school leavers find themselves at a crossroads: whether to pursue further studies or enter the employment market.
Most Hong Kong students and their parents see the entry into a top ranking university as the only dream route that guarantees upward social mobility. However, the harsh reality is that they often will have to look for other viable alternative pathways.
The Hong Kong SAR Government has been investing heavily in our younger generation and doing its best to equip them for the future and for the world of work.
The Labour Department has launched a special programme entitled "Career Let's go" to assist secondary school graduates who choose to enter the job market to better grasp the latest employment information, to devise a career plan and to enhance their employability. Some 40 000 youngsters are expected to benefit.
For 15 years, the Labour Department has been running a Youth Employment and Training Programme (YETP) which provides one-stop and diversified pre-employment and on-the-job training for school leavers aged 15 to 24 with educational attainment at sub-degree or below level. More than 57 000 youngsters have benefitted under this signature programme in the past five years or so, with a 70 per cent successful job placement rate. I am deeply attached to this programme as I was heavily involved in devising and launching it which was designed to tackle the exceptionally high youth unemployment in 1999, wearing my hat as Commissioner for Labour.
To encourage more employers to offer workplace attachment opportunities for the youngsters, we now offer a training allowance of $3,000 per month to employers engaging young people in on-the-job training for six to 12 months. Over 7 200 such training opportunities have been offered by some 1 200 companies / organisations so far in the 2014/15 programme year (from September 1, 2014 till end-May this year).
The YETP programme has been enriched in recent years with the launch of a variety of tailor-made pilot projects. Programmes available range from customer services, technical and information technology support, coffee-making, security, aircraft maintenance, retail, hospitality service to publishing industry.
I visited this week some of the trainees attached to a major bookstore and they all treasured the valuable training opportunity. However, one young man expressed concern that most of his classmates were “less lucky” and had to take up “blue-collar” jobs. This is indeed a vexed question. I remember the former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg having once quipped that for the average person, being a plumber probably would be a better deal than going to Harvard. His remarks sparked some debate then but there is some truth in what he said. After all, plumbing would not be outsourced to other places or replaced by machines.
Mr Cheung (fourth right, front row) is pictured with a group of trainees attached to a major bookstore. Third right, front row is the Vice President of The Eslite Spectrum, Mr Allen Su.
I would encourage our youths to look beyond the traditional and “white-collar” sectors and go for skilled jobs which offer equally rewarding , if not better, career prospects and job security. To achieve this, however, we need a change in mindset not only on the part of the youths but their parents as well.
Mr Cheung (first left) chats with the trainees to hear about their career aspirations.
If a golden passage is not available right now, why not set foot on the solid ground instead of standing still? My answer to the youth whom I met was: by equipping themselves with appropriate vocational training and continuous learning, his classmates can all build their own successful career path in the end.
There is an old saying that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Youngsters should be realistic and pragmatic in carving their career path. This equally applies to the present stalemate in Hong Kong’s constitutional development which does not give cause for optimism. For to stand still is to stagnate.
Mr Cheung (first left) chats with some of the Most Improved Trainees from the Youth Employment and Training Programme 2014.
Ends