Commissioner for Labour Cherry Tse has the able assistance of Raymond Ho (left) and Chan Kwok-keung, respectively in charge of the graduate internship and youth employment schemes. She calls on the graduates to grasp job opportunities and better equip themselves for the job market when the economy recovers.

The number of available jobs in the employment market has dwindled since the onset of the financial meltdown, Commissioner for Labour Cherry Tse pointed out in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

For this reason, she noted, it is most important for university graduates to seize opportunities to get into the job market in order to gain working experience.

In offering her advice to fresh graduates, she said their first job is only the starting point of their lifelong career. She called on them to be pragmatic and not to be too preoccupied with starting salaries of their initial jobs.

During the interview, Tse highlighted the new Internship Programme for University Graduates, which offers a total of 4,000 internship opportunities (3,000 places provided by local employers and 1,000 places provided by mainland enterprises) for a period ranging from six to 12 months.

She admitted the government in the past rarely ran any placement schemes for university graduates. "It is a special thing to do in the special circumstances of the financial tsunami," she remarked.

The purpose of the scheme is to provide internship opportunities to local university graduates to broaden their horizons in the current adverse economic climate, and to better equip them for the employment market upon economic revival.

Given it is a programme for fresh graduates, prior working experience is not necessary for any of the internship places. However, specific academic qualifications, such as accounting, information technology and architecture, are required for certain posts.

"Some local universities said they received 15 percent fewer job referrals from prospective employers than last summer and some even suggested 20 percent. Without any prior working experience, it is of paramount importance that the graduates enter the job market to gain experience," she said.

"I hope the graduates will be able to make use of what they learn at their prospective workplaces. If they fail to find jobs, graduation will mean unemployment to them and it will be a very big waste of resources and detrimental to society, knowing that the cost of nurturing the university graduates in Hong Kong is heavily subsidized by taxpayers' money," she added.

As of August 11, some 4,450 graduates from the 12 local tertiary institutions have signed up since the programme was opened to applications from August 1. According to information supplied by the employers and tertiary institutions, the average monthly salary of the local vacancies is over HK$8,500.

Among them, one telecommunications company pays the highest offer -HK$17,000- for a management trainee post, with 4 vacancies. In just over a week's time from the start of the programme, 26 graduates took up intern job with local employers.

Talking about such a lucrative offer, Tse said: "Perhaps the telecommunications company wishes to recruit the most outstanding candidates from this year's batch of graduates and offer them permanent employment if their performance during the placement period is satisfactory. And if such a high salary is offered, a huge number of candidates will surely be attracted to apply and the company will have a lot more choices."

For a local intern, the government will pay a monthly subsidy of HK$2,000, with the employers being required to pay no less than this amount, meaning that a graduate will have a monthly income of no less than HK$4,000.

For mainland internships, a graduate receives a living allowance of HK$3,000 per month, plus a monthly accommodation allowance of HK$1,500, if applicable, from the Hong Kong SAR government.

When the scheme was first announced a few months ago, there were widespread doubts about the salary level and whether the graduates would be exploited as "cheap labor" by local employers.

Senior Labour Officer Raymond Ho, who is in charge of the programme, said the actual data on the salaries proved that such worries were unwarranted.

"As the average salary of 75 percent of the vacancies is over HK$8,500, this shows that the employers are willing to pay the market rate to the graduate interns," he said.

As to the mainland internship opportunities arranged by The Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, they cover a wide spectrum of industries, including banking, hotel, insurance, manufacturing, real estate and tourism in more than 20 cities.

Most of the participating cities are from Guangdong Province and they include Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan. The other major participating cities include Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu, Fuzhou and Nanning.

Tse called on the graduates to make good use of the internship scheme, in particular the mainland internship opportunities.

"The participating mainland enterprises are really large enterprises, prompting a great many mainland graduates to vie for the opportunities to join such large enterprises. In fact, the intern jobs on offer are jobs with very promising career prospects, such opportunities as management trainees, computer programmers and financial analysts," she said. "This year, even the mainland university graduates find it difficult to find jobs. Such internship opportunities truly reflect the State's support for Hong Kong during these hard times."

The labour commissioner has another piece of advice for the mainland interns, citing international investor George Soros.

"When George Soros recently delivered a speech to university students in the US, he said he could not tell them what the future would be, but he said it is important for them to learn Chinese and the Chinese culture." she said. "As Hong Kong students are so close to the mainland, they should not miss this good opportunity to learn more about the mainland."

For all the Hong Kong interns working on the mainland, the Labour Department will provide them full insurance coverage, including public liability, accident and medical insurance, she said.

To provide further support to the students, The Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association and The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU), through its three service centers, in the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan, will organize visits to the interns and provide them help, if necessary.

"If the students agree to exchange of information, we will release the information of the Hong Kong interns working in the same mainland city, to enable them to know new friends and share their experience that they acquire from different companies," she noted hopefully.

The selection procedure for mainland interns is ongoing, Ho said. As they are required to work outside Hong Kong, he believes the mainland enterprises will provide them transportation and accommodation before arranging for them to leave Hong Kong in different groups.

"I think the earliest time the graduates can commence their mainland internship programme is September," said the commissioner. "Prior to their departure, the HKFTU will organize briefing sessions to familiarize them with the current situation, history and culture of the mainland. They should also have a legitimate yet pragmatic expectation of the mainland because it is nevertheless different from Hong Kong."

In particular, Tse expressed gratitude to the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association and the HKFTU for their efforts and cooperation.

She also thanked her colleagues for their bright ideas and hard work for the internship programme, saying: "Sometimes, while I merely contributed a word or two at the meeting, they, instead, would rack their brains to come up with good ideas, as well as spend sleepless nights preparing documents."

The participating local enterprises include Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong & China Gas Company Ltd., MTR Corporation Ltd. and EGL Tours.

Prominent among the mainland enterprises are Bank of China, China Merchants Group and China Overseas Holdings Ltd.

(HK Edition 08/14/2009 page4)