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Following is a question by Dr the Hon Fernando Cheung and a reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (January 26):

Question:

It has been reported that the results of survey published last month reviewed that among 509 young people in the 15-24 age group interviewed, 19% indicated that they were unemployed, and 60% indicated that the main difficulty they encountered in seeking jobs was their lack of work experience, followed by their academic qualifications and skills being below those required by the positions. Some young people said in a press conference that as they lived in the remote North District and came from poor families, the travelling expenses on going to urban areas for job-hunting were a heavy burden for them. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the measures it will take to assist young people from low-income families in the remote areas in finding work in urban areas;

(b) whether it will consider including more career-oriented subjects in the junior secondary school curriculum to cater for the needs of young junior secondary school leavers, and extending free education from nine years to 12 years to enhance the employment opportunities of young people; and

(c) whether it has assessed the adequacy and effectiveness of existing employment support measures for unemployed young people and the areas that can be improved; if it has, of the assessment results?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Labour Department (LD) provides a comprehensive range of employment services to the public, including young people. Apart from visiting LD's 10 Job Centres in various districts, job-seekers can make use of the Interactive Employment Service website to complete the registration procedure and browse job vacancies. They can also secure job referrals through the Telephone Employment Service hotline.

The LD has launched the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) since July 2002 to provide on-the-job training for young people to enhance their employability. In order to help young people living in the remote areas to find jobs, LD has requested participating non-government organisations (NGOs) with service centres in the remote areas, through their employer network, to try and organize job fairs in their respective districts. In doing so, more local vacancies could be made available for young people looking for jobs in areas near their residence. This will also encourage employers with vacancies outside that district to participate in these job fairs and conduct job interviews on the spot, thereby alleviating the financial burden of young people to travel to urban areas to find work.

(b) At present, the junior secondary curriculum aims to help students to learn how to learn and to have whole person development, including understanding their own inclinations, interests and abilities so that they can make appropriate choice of subjects in the senior secondary forms. Based on HK's experience in the past and demand on the quality of life-long learning in basic education, we consider that it is not appropriate to introduce career-oriented curriculum (COC) too early to the junior secondary forms. Besides, COC for senior secondary forms does not only aim at career training. It is to provide alongside other subjects a learning platform for both practical experiences related to certain careers/professions as well as some foundation knowledge under a diversified learning mode. COC is now in its second year of trial run. We hope to complete our review on the COC pilot scheme before implementation of the new senior secondary curriculum.

The Government has all along been providing nine-year free universal and basic education to children aged 6 to 15 (Primary One to Secondary Three) and heavily subsidised senior secondary education. Since the 2002/03 academic year, we have provided adequate number of subsidised Secondary Four / Five and vocational training places to all Secondary Three graduates from public-funded schools who are capable and willing to continue their studies. At present, the actual rate of subsidy for Secondary Four / Five education is 85%.

We are consulting the public on the proposed senior secondary education system. Under the proposed system, the current two-year senior secondary education system will be changed into a three-year one. All students will have the opportunity to receive six years of secondary education.

In view of the stringent financial situation and the fact that the proposal will involve significant resources, the Government will not consider extending free education from nine years to eleven or twelve years at this stage.

Nevertheless, the Government pledges that no children will be deprived of the opportunities to education because of financial difficulties. Apart from nine-year free education and heavily subsidised senior secondary education, we also provide various assistance to students from low-income families. These include fee remission for senior secondary education, examination fee remission, school textbook assistance, travel subsidy, etc.

(c) The LD is implementing three different training and employment programmes for young people aged 15 to 24 with education attainment below degree level. These include the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme (YPTP), the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) and the Youth Self-employment Support Scheme (YSSS). These programmes collectively provide a comprehensive range of options and services to cater for the employment and training needs of youths from different age groups with the aim of enhancing their employability.

The YPTP was launched in September 1999 to enhance the employability of school leavers aged 15 to 19 through the provision of a wide range of modular training, job placement opportunities, career counselling and support services. Over the past five years, more than 57 000 young persons were trained under the programme and about 70% of them secured employment after training. The LD will continue to run the YPTP until 2007 when a comprehensive review will be conducted.

YWETS was launched in July 2002 to provide on-the-job training of six to 12 months for about 10 000 young people aged between 15 and 24 in two years. The scheme aims at enriching the work experience of youths through employment, thereby enhancing their employability. By end-2004, more than 18 000 trainees were successfully placed in training vacancies under the Scheme. In addition, some 10 000 trainees were placed in jobs in the open employment market with the advice and assistance of their case managers provided under the scheme. Given the success of the scheme, the Government allocated another $300 million in 2004 to extend it for another two years.

The Centre for Social Policy Studies of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which has been commissioned by LD to evaluate the performance of YPTP and YWETS, has affirmed the effectiveness of both schemes and recommended extending YWETS and continuing with YPTP.

In May 2004, LD launched a new pilot scheme - the YSSS. Some 1 500 trainees have been enrolled to receive training under 36 projects in different areas of business, such as information technology and multimedia applications, personal care, and public performances. On completion of initial training, trainees have started to undergo hands-on practices in self-employment since mid-September 2004. LD has commissioned the CityU Professional Services Limited, a company of City University of Hong Kong, to review and evaluate the effectiveness of the YSSS.

We consider that the above youth employment and training programmes have a positive effect on improving the employment of young people. In fact, the unemployment rate of young people aged 15 to 19 has dropped by 16 percentage points from a high record of 37.6% for the period June to August 2003, to 21.5% for the period October to December 2004, with an unemployed population of about 15 000.

Ends/Wednesday, January 26, 2005

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