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Following is a question by the Dr Hon David Li Kwok-po and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (January 5):
Question:
The Internship Programme for University Graduates (the Programme), launched in August 2009 ceased accepting new applications after March 31, 2010. In May 2010, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare informed the Panel on Manpower that 1 674 and 239 graduates had taken up internships in Hong Kong and the Mainland respectively. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of applications it received under the Programme;
(b) of the positions offered to the participants of the Programme with a breakdown by industry;
(c) whether it has collected data on the post-programme employment of the participants of the Programme; if so, of the respective numbers of participants who have been offered full-time employment by the same employers who offered them internships upon the expiry of the internship periods and of those who are not employed by the same employers, the number of participants who successfully found other full-time employment within three months upon the expiry of the internship periods; and
(d) whether it has any plan to re-introduce the Programme or to offer a new scheme to promote employment of university graduates?
Reply:
President,
(a) The "Internship Programme for University Graduates" (the Programme) commenced receiving internship positions from enterprises on June 10, 2009 and enrolment of graduates began on August 1, 2009. The Programme ceased accepting applications from graduates for internship positions after March 31, 2010. In total, 8 102 eligible graduates registered for the Programme. (note 1)
(b) The breakdown of local and Mainland internships by industry is set out below.
Table 1: Breakdown of Local Internships by Industry
Industries Number of Percentage (%)
Interns
Business 454 27.0%
Services
Education 190 11.3%
Services
Construction 106 6.3%
and Engineering
Finance 85 5.1%
Retail 70 4.2%
Others (eg Transport, 776 46.2%
Manufacturing,
Import and
Export Trades, etc.)
Total 1 681 100%*
* There is a slight discrepancy between the sum of individual items and the total owing to rounding.
Table 2: Breakdown of Mainland Internships by Industry
Industries Number of Percentage (%)
Interns
Finance 101 42.3%
Business 35 14.6%
Services
Insurance 25 10.5%
Transport 16 6.7%
Real Estate 11 4.6%
Others (eg Construction 51 21.3%
and Engineering,
Hospital,
Manufacturing, etc)
Total 239 100%
(c) A total of 983 internships were completed in full at the end of November 2010. Among the 554 local and 90 Mainland interns successfully surveyed, 449 (81%) of the former and 30 (33.3%) of the latter were further employed by the same hosting enterprises.
(d) The Programme was launched as a special and time-limited initiative targeted at university graduates of 2008 and 2009 in the wake of the financial tsunami. According to the latest employment statistics published by the Census and Statistics Department, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.1%, the lowest level in almost two years. The latest statistics of the Joint Institution Job Information System (JIJIS) (note 2) also indicate that the number of full-time job positions for university graduates received during September to November 2010 (2 749) has increased by 45.14% on a year-on-year basis.
Taking into account the notable improvement in the labour market situation and the increase in job openings for university graduates, we ceased accepting internship positions and applications from graduates after March 31, 2010. We will continue to monitor the labour market situation closely and offer assistance to job seekers through our wide range of employment services.
note 1: According to a survey conducted in February 2010, about 80% of the Programme registrants were in full-time employment at the time of interview. In other words, the majority of those who had not been placed into internship had already secured a full-time job.
note 2: JIJIS is a central database system recording job vacancies offered by employers to graduates of the eight UGC-funded institutions.
Ends/Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Issued at HKT 11:44
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