Legislators and social workers have urged the government to make the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme, due to be launched in July, a useful and practical one which actually helps young people secure jobs.

Financial Secretary Antony Leung revealed the two-year scheme in the March budget, announcing the government would allocate a one-off sum of HK$400 million (US$51.2 million) to provide on-the-job training for about 10,000 young people aged from 15 to 24.

The government made the decision after identifying school leavers without college degrees as the most vulnerable to the deteriorating job market.

Legislators of the Democratic Party (DP) yesterday suggested the government combine the new scheme with existing pre-employment training schemes to avoid functions overlapping.

They talked with dozens of education frontline workers, social workers and members of other pre-employment training schemes to collect their views on the new scheme.

DP legislator Andrew Cheng said the new scheme could give chances for young dropouts to gain work experience and show their potential through on-the-job training which lasts six months to one year.

But he suggested the government adopt a way to stimulate the young trainees.And employers should be encouraged to make good use of trainees instead of just using them as cheap labour.

The government will subsidize employers HK$2,000 (US$256.4)per trainee but require them to pay each trainee HK$4,000 (US$512.8) minimum every month, Cheng said.

Both legislators and social workers agreed that social workers should play an important role asco-ordinators between employers and trainees.

Social workers will take care of individuals after they have been assigned positions, through regular meetings, assistance and guidance,urging them to satisfy their employers.

The latest figures showed about 240,000 people without jobs during the first quarter when the unemployment rate hit an all-time high of 7 per cent.

The Education and Manpower Bureau found that the situation for young people aged 15-24 was particularly bad, nearly doubling the average jobless rate, standing at 6.8 per cent for the three months ended January 2002.

About 80,000 school leavers could not get jobs during that period compared with the total 219,000 unemployed.