Comprehensive system needed to promote youth employment in GBA

With the launch of the Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme, mentioned in the chief executive's recently delivered Policy Address, the SAR government will subsidize 2,000 Hong Kong students to work on the mainland for 18 months. The Scheme has once again put employment in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area under the spotlight.

Years of promotion and policy adjustments are gradually optimizing the basic administrative and ancillary measures to facilitate Hong Kong residents to work on the mainland. It now boils down to whether they are willing to do so.
According to the "Policy Recommendations to Some Young People in Hong Kong for Working in Greater Bay Area" published by the independent think tank MWYO, which commissioned the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to conduct a survey from late August to early October 2019, only 13.4 percent of Hong Kong youth are interested in working in the GBA. This phenomenon was caused by multiple factors, but on the whole, the crux of the issue is the absence of a GBA employment scheme in the hearts of the people of Hong Kong, who have spent their early life in the city, from growing up, studying to career planning. This Hong Kong-focused life path naturally leads them to confine their job search in Hong Kong only, making it difficult for Hong Kong's employment market to connect with its mainland counterpart.

To promote Hong Kong youth employment in Guangdong and Macao, what needs to be done is not only the optimization of policies and measures, but also the establishment of a highly integrated system among the three places. In this regard, we can and should experiment with a three-step approach to introduce Hong Kong youths to mainland work environments, beginning with higher education through internships and employment.

The first step starts with higher education. GBA cities on the mainland should be encouraged to cooperate with Hong Kong-based education institutions on the development of first-class universities and vocational training institutions, where Hong Kong youths can join mainland youths in preparing themselves for a career path on the mainland that includes internships there. They will see firsthand career opportunities on the mainland upon or even before graduation, the first important milestone in the three-step approach. It is also necessary to create disciplines that are different from those in Hong Kong universities, with a focus on emerging industries such as biomedicine, digital economy, marine economy, etc. A diversified academic environment should go a long way in preparing students for competition in the mainland job market, through international standard training.

An intern experience on the mainland allows undergrad students in Hong Kong to familiarize themselves with the job market and their future workplace on the mainland, making it possible for them to devise a career path and even gain experience in social networking if not workplace politics that will lead to future career opportunities upon graduation. Government departments concerned and employers on the mainland may contact Hong Kong-based universities and the Education Bureau to hold job roadshows on university campuses, preferably with immediate recruitment offers. Both internships and campus job fairs provide graduates from grassroots families with a prospective career that will help them move up the social ladder and hopefully ease their financial burdens. The Hong Kong SAR government, on the other hand, has been promoting "Life Planning" programs in recent years to help young people broaden their horizons. When paired with internships on the mainland, such programs should allow job seekers in Hong Kong to acquire social capital while exploring career options through firsthand experience.

When their internship program comes to an end, students may choose to settle down on the mainland and build their career there. The SAR government may introduce policies encouraging local enterprises to pursue sustainable growth on the mainland, invest in innovation and promote exchanges and cooperation with universities and research institutes so as to incubate startups in diversified industries.

The education-internship-employment triple jump formula should help the GBA construct a complete intercity employment system as an answer to future need for talents and job opportunities in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Thanks to mature and comprehensive industry chains in the GBA, the industrialization and commercialization of research achievements is more efficient than many other regions and will give rise to a stable employment market. Well-educated Hong Kong youths who are already familiar with life on the mainland will be the first to try to benefit from such an organic employment system.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.