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Two hundred and fifty trainees participating in the project "Action S4" under the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) will start their six-month on-the-job training in 38 social service organisations tomorrow.
"Action S4" is a new pilot project under YWETS launched by the Labour Department to help unemployed youngsters with special needs to find jobs more easily. "S4" means "Self-respect", "Self-reflection", "Self-confidence" and "Self-enhancement".
Officiating at the Launching Ceremony of "Action S4" today (March 16), the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour (Labour), Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said:"With the assistance of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, we have mobilised 108 units from 38 social service organisations and 180 co-workers to provide diversified on-the-job training to 250 trainees. This will be a golden opportunity for these youngsters to gain work experience, learn problem-solving skills and enjoy the sense of achievement on completion of their assignments."
While advising trainees to treasure every learning opportunity, Mr Cheung offered them practical tips in his "code of practice" at work.
"First of all, we should be attentive, not to our boyfriends or girlfriends, but to our job and things happening around us. This will help develop our interest in work and sensitivity."
"We should also have perseverance in work. Brace the storm and try our best," Mr Cheung said.
"Cooperation with others is another key to success. We should learn to put ourselves into others' shoes and be considerate in order to maintain good relationship with colleagues and nurture team spirit," Mr Cheung continued.
"We must be sincere to our work, colleagues and clients; and adopt a positive attitude."
"Last but not the least, we should ensure that our performance is satisfactory both to ourselves and our superiors," he said, and hoped that the "code" would be a useful guide.
Trainees under the Project Action S4 will work in host organisations in many different positions. While some posts are clerical, secretarial or administrative in nature, others may involve work in information technology, promotion and publicity, event organising and customer service, etc. Each participant will receive a monthly salary of $4,000.
Intensive and tailor-made counselling and support services will be provided to participants by professional case managers and caring mentors assigned by host organisations. Case managers will monitor the progress of participants and advise on problems encountered by them, while mentors will provide on-the-job guidance and encouragement.
The YWETS provides on-the-job training to unemployed young people aged between 15 and 24 in order to increase their employability. So far, more than 8,000 trainees have secured employment. Many of them are engaged in the education, retail, commercial and community services sectors.
About 11,500 training vacancies have been solicited from over 2,600 employers.
End/Sunday, March 16, 2003
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