Tseung Kwan O District (TKODIST) Junior Police Call (JPC), in collaboration with Hong Kong Quality Mentorship Network (QMN), held the kick-off ceremony for the firstly- launched life planning project "GROWS Together" today (February 4).
 
     The project enables local senior secondary students to gain workplace experience. They will be also given opportunities to visit the Mainland and overseas cities and join the internship programmes there to broaden their horizons. Speaking at the kick-off ceremony, the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung; and the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak, offered words of encouragement to the student participants.
 
     The District Commander of TKODIST, Mr Mak Man-yu; the Chairman of the TKODIST JPC Honorary President Council, Mr Ng Loi-sing; the Chairman of QMN, Ms Judith Yu; the Vice Chairman of QMN, Dr Moses Cheng, and around 200 mentors and students attended the kick-off ceremony. The co-organisers also took the opportunity to share the vision and programme of the project with the participants.

     The letters that form the word "GROWS" in the project represent five core components in one’s growth: Goal setting, Reality, Options, Wills and Sharing. It is hoped that the project can enable student participants to experience and grow in these five aspects. With a view to “influencing life with life and enriching lives through gaining rich experiences”, the project has gathered elites from various sectors to serve as mentors and they will accompany the student participants by means of one-to-one mode on their journey of growth, helping them build confidence and positive values, as well as letting them equip themselves early for their future so that they can spread their wings and soar high on their career paths to success.
 
     The project has gained support from numerous JPC School Club secondary schools in TKODIST. More than 90 senior secondary students from 13 secondary schools have been recommended by their schools and successfully joined the project. The project will be launched in two parts. The "First Workplace Experience", targeting Secondary 4 and Secondary 5 students, will arrange thematic talks on the workplace, visits to enterprises, simulated workplaces and work experience sharing sessions to help student participants gain a better understanding of different industries and job positions with the guidance of instructors. Student participants with outstanding performance in the assessments can even join an exchange programme in Beijing this summer. The "Global Aspirations", specifically set for Secondary 6 graduates who have completed the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, will provide the student participants with internship opportunities in Beijing to gain valuable workplace experience for planning their university life.

     As a response to the idea "Hong Kong will prosper only when its young people thrive; Hong Kong will develop only when its young people achieve well-rounded development", which was mentioned in the important speech by President Xi Jinping during the meeting celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, TKODIST will continue to organise diverse activities for teenagers to help them cultivate positive values so that young people in the district can become a new generation with a sense of responsibility and ideals.

Ends/Saturday, February 4, 2023
Issued at HKT 14:23

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