The Labor Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) is actively cooperating with employers of all trades, professional and training bodies to identify more training vacancies for participants of the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS).
Speaking at the launching ceremony of the "Airport Ambassador Project" under the YWETS Friday, Pamela Tan Kam Mi-wah, commissioner for labor, said that good progress had been made and the project was a successful example.
The project demonstrated the concerted efforts of the Labor Department, the Airport Authority and the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups by providing more than 100 training vacancies in four phases for YWETS trainees.
"Ambassadors" recruited under the project will render services and assistance to travelers at the airport. They will have classroom training before taking up the job, and will receive vocational training at the Hong Kong Travel and Tourism Training Center during the employment period.
Tan said that other successful examples included the "I.T. Seeds Project" jointly organized by various school councils, offering more than 500 teaching assistant posts in schools.
"Also, the 'Travel Pioneer Project', a joint effort of the Labor Department and 25 travel agents, has provided over 300 vacancies for tourist guides and escorts as well as ticketing officers," she added.
The YWETS aims at enhancing the employability of young people aged between 15 and 24 with below degree education by providing on-the-job training to improve their vocational skills and personal credentials.
"The spirit of the scheme is to encourage employers, through government subsidies in training, to provide training posts for young people," she said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2002)
