Youth Development Commission convenes sixth meeting
​The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, chaired the sixth meeting of the Youth Development Commission (YDC) today (May 18). At the meeting, members were briefed on the job creation measures on supporting youth employment introduced under the Anti-epidemic Fund (AEF), and discussed the progress and outlook of the YDC's work.
Members noted that the Government would create about 30 000 time-limited jobs under the AEF in the public and private sectors in the coming two years for people with different skills and academic qualifications. Each job placement would last for up to 12 months. The jobs will include positions suitable for youth, such as those for fresh graduates, including positions requiring professional or general skills (e.g. graduate programmes in building surveying, town planning, estate surveying, land surveying and engineering; IT executives; and researchers), positions for experienced professionals (e.g. legal, accounting, financial services, engineering and architecture), positions for technicians and supporting staff, and positions to promote arts and culture and a green lifestyle (e.g. jobs in museums, green ambassadors and eco-tour guides).
Besides time-limited positions, the Government will create more than 10 000 civil service job openings for replacing retirees and filling new posts to be created in the 2020-21 Estimates. The job openings will cover a wide range of grades and many of them will be very suitable for application by youth. In addition, the Government will hire about 5 000 short-term interns, including inviting public bodies to provide internship placements.
Members generally welcomed the above job creation measures. They suggested that the Government should, when designing the relevant job positions, give due consideration to young people's needs in their career development, with a view to assisting them to enter different industries and continue to develop and progress therein. Furthermore, members suggested strengthening publicity of the relevant positions and on-the-job training, and recommended that the Government encourage private organisations to hire fresh graduates. To further drive forward youth employment work, the YDC agreed to, subject to maintaining adequate social distancing, arrange the first policy thematic meeting through webcasting within June and adopt youth employment as the theme, with a view to further listening to young people's views on employment prospects and, through making use of the YDC as a platform to foster cross-bureau collaboration, implementing the above-mentioned job creation measures related to youth more effectively.
Members also took note of the progress of the YDC's various youth development programmes. To protect young people's health, minimise social contact and implement anti-infection measures, and in view of the development of the COVID-19 epidemic and work requirements, the YDC has, since January, implemented various special arrangements and enhancement measures for its youth development programmes.
In particular, in view of school suspension and the impact on young people's well-being brought about by the epidemic, the YDC introduced in March enhancement measures to the Funding Scheme for Youth Life Planning Activities (2019-22). The existing 24 funded organisations were invited to organise no fewer than five additional activities within the current school year, including making use of technology to organise life planning activities and organise activities that would enhance young people's well-being and stress management, thus providing life planning support and training to students during the epidemic. The enhancement measures have received a positive response. A total of 23 funded organisations participated in the new enhancement measures and received an additional grant equivalent to 10 per cent of the grant receivable for the 2019/20 school year to organise relevant activities. A total of more than 200 e-learning activities have been organised so far.
Furthermore, the YDC has collaborated with the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) to produce a video series entitled "Together, We Fight the Disease with Youth". Members from different backgrounds were invited to answer young people's questions about fighting the disease and to show support to young people. A total of five episodes have been released through social media platforms and have accumulated close to 200 000 views in total so far. The public may visit the Facebook pages of the YDC and the HAB to watch the relevant videos.