LCQ17: Youth Pre-employment Training Programme and Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme
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     Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (May 18):

Question:

     According to the latest data (provisional figures) of the Census and Statistics Department, the unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 19 was 18.3% from January to March this year. Given that youth unemployment has all along been an issue of public concern, the Government launched the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme (YPTP) and the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) in 1999 and 2002 respectively, and integrated the two programmes into YPTP&YWETS in September 2009. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the respective numbers of places provided under YPTP&YWETS, YPTP and YWETS in each of the past three years; the respective numbers of persons joining these programmes in various districts in each of the past three years, broken down by the 18 District Council districts;

(b) given that under the existing YPTP&YWETS, trainees can also receive paid on-the-job training for a duration of six to 12 months in the capacity of employees, of the respective numbers of on-the-job training places provided under this programme and YWETS in each of the past three years; among them, the respective numbers of places offered by social welfare organisations and non-social welfare organisations; of the industries to which the training places offered by non-social welfare organisations belonged;

(c) whether it knows in the past three years, the total number of trainees who were, after they had completed their internship and graduated, employed in jobs relevant to the courses taken by them; and

(d) given that under the arrangement of YPTP&YWETS, the authorities will disburse a training subsidy to employers at $2,000 per month for each trainee engaged to pay the wages during the trainees' on-the-job training, and employers will pay the remaining amount, whether the authorities know the average amount of subsidies currently paid by employers to each trainee per month; if not, whether the authorities will consider keeping the relevant records?

Reply:

President,

The information sought is provided below:

(a) The Labour Department in 2009 enhanced and integrated the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme (YPTP) and the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) into a "through-train" programme - "YPTP&YWETS" - to provide seamless and comprehensive training and employment support to young school leavers aged 15 to 24 with educational attainment at sub-degree level or below. The programme does not set a ceiling on training capacity and will flexibly admit all eligible young people.

     In the past three programme years (from September each year up to August the following year), the number of trainees enrolled by the YPTP, the YWETS and the revamped YPTP&YWETS in various districts are at Annex.

(b) In the past three programme years, the numbers of on-the-job training vacancies received by the YWETS/YPTP&YWETS were as follows:

                    2007/08    2008/09    2009/10
                    Programme  Programme  Programme
                    Year       Year       Year

Number of           12 141     10 722     12 098
on-the-job
training vacancies
received

     Of these vacancies, 225, 241 and 185 were provided by social welfare organisations in the programme years of 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2009/10 respectively.  The breakdown by industry of training vacancies not provided by social welfare organisations were as follows:

                     2007/08    2008/09    2009/10
                     Programme  Programme  Programme
                     Year       Year       Year
Industry

Wholesale,           3 758      3 162      3 719
retail and
import/export trades,
restaurants and
hotels

Community, social    2 723      2 703      2 452
and
personal service

Construction           776        886      1 545

Financing,           1 794      1 268      1 495
insurance,
real estate and
business services

Transport, storage   1 355      1 401      1 409
and communications

Government sector      386        265        408

Manufacturing          497        337        394

Others                 627        459        491

(c) Trainees participating in YPTP&YWETS may, depending on their needs and interests, enrol in one core course on job-search and interpersonal skills training and/or a maximum of four elective courses on discipline and motivation training, computer application training or job-specific skills training in various trades.  As some trainees may only attend the core course while other trainees may attend several elective courses on job-specific skills in different occupations/trades, we have not compiled statistics on whether the training is relevant to the work taken up by the trainees after they complete the programme.

(d) To promote the employment of young people with limited work experience, YPTP&YWETS provides a monthly training subsidy of $2,000 for a period of six to 12 months to employers who engage YPTP&YWETS trainees for on-the-job training.  As employment relationship exists between the two parties, the employers are required to pay wages commensurate with the duties, responsibilities and training content of the posts to the trainees.  With the enactment of the Minimum Wage Ordinance, employers are also required to pay to those trainees who are covered by the Ordinance wages no less than the statutory minimum wage rate.  In the 2009/10 Programme, the training vacancies filled by trainees offered an average monthly wage of $5,747.

Ends/Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Issued at HKT 11:41

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