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The Social Welfare Department (SWD) will launch three employment assistance projects next month to assist unemployed Comprehensive Social Security Assistant (CSSA) recipients to rejoin the workforce and move towards self-reliance to achieve the objective of moving from welfare to work.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been commissioned to run these three projects. They include the Fourth Batch of Intensive Employment Assistance Projects (IEAPs) and the District Employment Assistance Trial (DEAT) Project. Both will run for a period of two years from October 2006 to September 2008. My STEP – Special Training and Enhancement Programme, a one-year trial project, will run from October 2006 to September 2007.
Since October 2003, the SWD has launched a total of 105 IEAPs in three batches over a period of four years. By the end of July 2006, more than 34,000 participants including CSSA recipients and other able-bodied unemployed have joined the programme. Over 45% of them had been assisted to take up full-time employment. About 40% of the CSSA participants had left the CSSA net or reduced reliance on CSSA as a result of taking up paid work.
A SWD spokesman said, "In view of the encouraging results, an additional sum of $60 million has been announced by the Financial Secretary in his 2006/07 Budget Speech to extend the projects for another two years."
The 40 projects of the Fourth Batch of IEAPs will provide a wide range of employment assistance services such as job matching, employment counselling, job skills training, and post-placement support.
The spokesman said although the unemployment rate and CSSA caseload had stabilised following the recovery of the economy, the department was still concerned with the challenges and barriers such as low educational level and lack of job skills faced by the long-term CSSA unemployed, in particular unemployed youths.
In this connection, the SWD will launch three DEAT Projects, each in Tin Shui Wai, Tsuen Wan and Tung Chung, to assist the long-term CSSA unemployed in these districts.
These projects will provide more targeted assistance including job attachment, job-related skills and sector-specific training, counselling services, job matching, as well as a one-off incentive of $1,500 for "Return-to-work" to encourage participants to secure and sustain employment.
My STEP is another trial employment assistance project aiming to serve CSSA unemployed recipients aged 15 to 24 and living in Tin Shui Wai or Yuen Long.
"Most of the unemployed CSSA youths not only lack work experience and self-confidence, but are also low in motivation. Hence, the project's training courses include some motivational elements tailor-made for participants. Through the experience learnt from the motivational programmes and through arranging job attachments and job placements, participants will be assisted to take up employment to prevent them from relying on CSSA for a longer period," the spokesman said.
"It is expected all these new employment assistance projects will provide employment assistance services to no less than 14,850 needy unemployed," the spokesman added.
Ends/Friday, September 29, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:01
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