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Taught to be a boss

Employ yourself

By Kenix Wong

High youth unemployment rate has been one of the most in-tractable problems confronting Hong Kong since the economic downturn in 1997.

However, instead of sticking to the conventional solution of providing job opportunities for the youth, the government, by providing one-year practical training, encourages the youth to create jobs for themselves.

The Youth Self-Employment Support Scheme since May 2004 was inaugerated by the Labour Department on a trial basis. It aims to provide an alternative to traditional salaried employment for people between 18 and 24 years old who possess an educational attainment from Form 5 to below degree level.

A number of non-profit organizations are cooperating with the Labour Department to initiate altogether 36 projects

Nikki Wong Tse Ying, a 20-year-old Form 7 graduate, is a trainee of the course on development of youth and children organized by the Methodist Centre.

She used to be a salesperson and has some experience of selling accessories in the bazaar.

“After graduation I did not want to be a salesperson anymore. I hope to learn more skills and broaden my horizons,” said Nikki.

She, like all the other trainees, receives two main kinds of training in the project, both basic vocational skills and basic skills of self-employment. The former puts emphasis on professional qualifications of the industries concerned, and the latter focuses on marketing techniques, financial management and interpersonal skills.

The course Nikki has chosen aims to assist in the development of thoughts and psychology of youth and children through a variety of programmes such as adventure, leadership training, activities for parents and children, and rock climbing.

“I applied for this course because I like cooperating and working with others,” said she.

Having attended all the lessons of this course, Nikki feels very satisfied with it.

“From the course, I can try different activities, cooperate with different people, learn how to present my proposals to different organizations and design various programmes,” she said.

After the course, each trainee will be given opportunities to get practical experience through hands-on practices under the supervision of their teachers.

Nikki is now working as a part-time assistant of the Methodist Centre and is responsible for the daily operation of the centre under the guidance of Mr. Leung Chung Hong, the person in charge of the course as well as the deputy officer of the Department of Human Resources of the Methodist Centre.

Mr. Leung said, “Our objective is to enable trainees to understand what self-employment exactly is through their hands-on experience. Therefore, we do not only teach them vocational skills.

“In fact, many social workers (those working on the children's and youth's development) are only proficient in vocational skills, and they lack marketing and commercial knowledge, and are therefore unable to search for business opportunities.”

As one of the tutors of the course, Mr. Leung highly valued the performance of the trainees.

“They can pick up new knowledge quickly and are creative. Whenever they devise innovative programs, we try our best to provide them with necessary equipment and resources,” said Mr. Leung.

“However, they fail to learn comprehensively and lack experience.”

Nikki certainly understood that enhancement of competitiveness is crucial to the success of self-employment.

“I plan to acquire more certificates by attending more courses on a part-time basis while I am working, because I can convince more people to use my services if I become more competent.”

The Salvation Army is another non-profit organization which has joined the scheme.

It has initiated a course called “Showroom of Life” which aims to provide skills of manufacturing household products, clothes and handicrafts, and techniques for repairing visual and audio devices, computers, and electronic appliances. Trainees are also taught to produce products by using recycled materials.

To enable the trainees' understanding to self-employment, the scheme offers them resources, capital and opportunities for hands-on selling experience.

Jaime Tang Kit Mei, one of the instructors of the course and the Business Development Officer of the Salvation Army, commented that she saw progress in the trainees.

“At the very beginning, they were not united and always quarrelled with each other, and so I had to tackle their interpersonal problems. The situation has improved a lot.

“Moreover, originally they did not know how to manage the financial matters of the shop and were shy to deal with customers, but they have been making steady improvement,” said Ms. Tang.

However, some trainees are not satisfied with the shop where they work now. It sells various goods like clothes, accessories, toys, and household products and most of them are from donations to the Salvation Army, with only few of them made by the trainees.

“At the beginning, I thought that the trainees could sell our DIY and hand-made recycled products in the shop. However, you can see that many of our commodities are finished products distributed by the organization,” said Carrie, one of the trainee.

“The problem is that there is a lack of capital to provide us with raw materials to make DIY products.”

Despite the fact that trainees can learn various techniques of starting businesses from the course, some of them do not plan to embark on their own business immediately after graduation.

Carrie said, “I will work as a salesperson for some large firms after this course because starting a business is a huge investment and thus I need to acquire more experience by observing the operation of a large firm.”

Ms. Tang agreed with Carrie's view, saying that one of the problems of the Youth Self-Employment Support Scheme is that the Labour Department does not provide the organization with adequate budget to run the programme.

“Because of this, we cannot afford higher rent and thus fail to find a better location for the shop. As a result, we cannot attract more customers and the trainees are quite disappointed,” said Ms. Tang.

She urged the government to increase the amount of budget so as to have a better location for our shop. “I believe this will enhance trainees' self-confidence when they have more customers,” said she.

Another demoralizing fact is that trainees do not receive income during the first four months of the scheme, as stipulated by the Labour Department.

Ms. Tang explains, “Many trainees are then in financial straits since they cannot support their living (in the first four months). They can't even support their transportation and lunch fees.

Therefore, after the course had begun, several trainees quit and found other jobs. Some trainees were persuaded by their families to do the same because they had financial difficulties. The deadline of application was postponed from June to October in order to admit more trainees.

“The government ought to provide financial assistance to the trainees to support their basic needs. I believe it does not bring heavy financial burden to the government,” she said.

Besides, Ms. Tang commented that the preparation work of the Labour Department for the scheme is not enough.

“Perhaps because this is the first time for the Department to carry out schemes of this kind, the procedures and requirements of the paperwork, such as reports and forms on the evaluation and progress of the course, change from time to time,” she said.

“These sudden and frequent changes greatly increase our workload and it often takes us more than a week to finish one set of paperwork.”

According to Ms. Tang, even her organization, the Salvation Army, should bear part of the responsibilities.

“The commodities sold here are mostly from our organization. However, there are more than ten other departments which need the products and the Salvation Army always gives priority to other departments; they offer little support to this course.”

By revealing the deficiencies of the Youth Self-Employment Support Scheme, Ms. Tang pointed out, “I can see that those trainees are of very high potential. However, their capabilities are not exerted to the full due to a number of limitations. This is unfair to them.”