*********************************************************
The Government had ploughed a lot of resources into enhancing the employability of young people and their employment opportunities, the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip Shu-kwan, said today (November 27).
Mr Ip was speaking at the launching ceremony of the "Youth Employment Home Base" of the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) of the Labour Department.
He said that quality human resources were the engines for Hong Kong's economic development. It was important for the Government to nurture the younger generation and our talents in order to maintain Hong Kong's competitive edge. The Labour Department's Youth Pre-employment Training Programme (YPTP) and YWETS were two major government initiatives on job training for young people.
"Both YPTP and YWETS are well received by the community. They have become the largest youth employment programmes in Hong Kong, training more than 110,000 youngsters in the past few years," he said.
He urged young people to join these programmes to better equip themselves and make a good start in their career.
"These two programmes have been very successful as they are in tandem with international standards in terms of framework design and effectiveness, and they have been highly appraised by the International Labour Organisation."
"Employers' support to our youth employment policies is crucial in improving youth employment. The success of YWETS has proved that cross-sector collaboration could bear fruitful results in society," he continued.
Also speaking at the launch ceremony, the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said that the outstanding achievements of YWETS were wholly due to the participation and full support of stakeholders in the community.
To give recognition to the continuous support of employers for YWETS, the Labour Department today acknowledged these enterprises as "Youth Employment Home Base" - a honourable title for socially responsible corporate employers in recognition of their support for youth employment.
"The 22 enterprises that are awarded the honourable title of 'Youth Employment Home Base' have been lending strong support to YWETS over the last few years. They have provided a considerable number of training places to YWETS trainees, and upon completion of training, they have offered them employment and sustainable career development opportunities," Mr Cheung said.
"These good employers deserve our recognition as they have conscientiously fulfilled their corporate social responsibility.
"We hope that these 22 enterprises will become a 'base' to encourage more employers to join the programmes and help nurture our youngsters. We also hope that more employers will consider supporting youth employment as an important criterion in the formulation of their long-term human resource plan and policies," he said.
To enhance the department's youth employment services, the Labour Department set up a new Youth Employment Service Hotline (2112 9932) today to provide a one-stop enquiry service for the public and trainees of YPTP and YWETS to get details of the two youth programmes. Employers are also welcome to call the hotline to offer training vacancies.
Ends/Monday, November 27, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:31
NNNN
