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Following is a statement issued by a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) today (December 21) in response to the assistance offered to non-civil service contract (NCSC) Community Work Organisers (CWOs) in finding jobs:
¡°The SWD is committed to enhancing the effectiveness of the employment assistance services under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme with a view to assisting able-bodied recipients to become self-reliant. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been commissioned to implement an integrated employment assistance programme, namely, the Integrated Employment Assistance Programme for Self-reliance (IEAPS), from January 1, 2013. The IEAPS will provide diversified, one-stop and family-based employment assistance services to CSSA recipients who have work capability.
Upon the implementation of IEAPS by NGOs, the current community work programme run by the SWD will soon be phased out. The current 68 NCSC CWOs will have to leave service when their contracts expire on March 31, 2013.
To allow sufficient time (a span of more than one year) for the NCSC CWOs to prepare for the change, including the search for new jobs, the SWD informed the affected CWOs as early as February 2012 about all relevant details concerning the non-renewal of their contracts upon expiry on March 31, 2013.
The SWD has recently conducted an open recruitment exercise for the post of Social Security Assistant to meet the service needs. The Department has informed the CWOs about this recruitment exercise in accordance with the established mechanism. Those CWOs who have met the entry requirements can apply for the posts through open recruitment. They will all be shortlisted to attend the recruitment interview. According to the current policy, appointment to the civil service is based on the principle of open and fair competition, and candidates being appointed should meet the basic entry requirements of the post applied.
The SWD has all along been pro-active in assisting NCSC CWOs in finding jobs, including:
The SWD has provided the CWOs with suitable job vacancies information (concerning over 20 posts which cover civil service and NCSC posts, such as Assistant Hawker Control Officer, Assistant Clerical Officer and Clerical Assistant; and posts in public organisations such as the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, the Hospital Authority, and other NGOs), encouraged CWOs to apply for jobs, assisted them to submit applications and helped them better prepared by equipping them with the necessary interview and technical skills.
The SWD has arranged a number of sharing sessions on interviewing and jobs skills for the CWOs. During those sessions, civil servants were invited to share their experience. So far, sharing sessions on posts including Social Security Assistant, Social Security Officer II, Assistant Hawker Control Officer, Assistant Clerical Officer and Clerical Assistant have been held.
A total of 26 NGOs which have been commissioned to carry out the IEAPS have agreed to consider the appointment of suitable CWOs. With the consent from individual CWOs, personal particulars of 29 CWOs have been referred to these NGOs for appointment purpose. Meanwhile, the SWD has also passed the recruitment information from these NGOs to the CWOs for their consideration for application.
Workshops on improving interview skills and personal effectiveness conducted by professional training consultants and various kinds of training courses have also been arranged by the SWD for the CWOs. The CWOs can apply for these courses according to their needs. So far, 10 such courses with more than 340 places have been attended by the officers.
The SWD has also made arrangement with the Employee Retraining Board (ERB) to provide personal consultation service to individual CWOs. Subsidy will be provided by the SWD to CWOs for attending training courses conducted by the ERB and other recognised training organisations (such as, the Construction Industry Council and the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong).
Ends/Friday, December 21, 2012
Issued at HKT 21:11
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