A spokesman for the Environment Bureau (ENB) said today (September 5) that the Government’s subsidy programme for graduates under the Green Employment Scheme has received applications covering more than 550 jobs. With the positive response received from the relevant trades, the ENB has increased the subsidy quota from originally about 200 to 550 to benefit more graduates and employers.
The programme aims to subsidise private companies and suitable organisations to employ fresh graduates working in areas related to environmental protection. According to some of the employers, the responses of the fresh graduates applying for the relevant jobs are overwhelming. The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is processing the applications and has disbursed the subsidies progressively to the employers who successfully hired the eligible graduates.
The spokesman said that the EPD has completed the processing of about half of the applications, covering around 300 jobs. Among them, the recruitment of eligible graduates for some 80 approved jobs has been done while the recruitment for the remaining approved jobs is under way.
The applicants of the programme come from companies and organisations of diversified background and the approved subsidised positions cover a wide range of environmental protection areas, including environmental consultancy, environmental management, waste reduction and recycling, environmental education, environmental technology equipment and testing, renewable energy, new energy vehicles and air quality, green construction and management, ecological conservation and green finance.
The graduates' subsidy programme will be implemented from 2020-21. It provides opportunities for graduates who are interested in environment-related fields to enter the industry under the current situation of employment difficulties, and to nurture talents for meeting needs on various environmental fronts. The programme will provide employers of eligible graduates with a monthly subsidy of $5,610 to form part of the monthly salary paid to each eligible graduate for a period of 18 months. Graduates who participate in the programme will also receive environment-related professional training provided by the EPD, professional societies and organisations, which will help the employed graduates acquire better understanding of different areas of expertise in the field.
The application period for the programme ended on August 28. For enquiries about application status, applicants can contact the Secretariat of the programme at 2788 5438 or gsp_secretariat@hkpc.org.
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