Centre to provide advisory and counselling for F5 students

The Labour Department and the Education Department will jointly operate an advisory centre on careers and further studies from today (August 5) until August 10 for this year's F5 graduates and their parents.

The Commissioner for Labour, Mrs Pamela Tan Kam Mi-wah, together with the Deputy Director of Education, Mr M Y Cheng, visited the centre this morning to see for themselves the facilities there.

Staffed by officers from the two departments and a team of specially trained undergraduates from post-secondary colleges, the centre will provide one-stop advisory and counselling service on careers development and further education.

Information on careers development in various trades and industries, vocational training and further studies both locally and overseas are available. There will also material on various programmes suitable for F.5 students, such as the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme (YPTP), the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) and the Project Yi Jin.

Staff at the centre also man an enquiry hotline (2152 5055) and a on-line chat room at www.careers.labour.gov.hk. The chat room is a forum for fresh school leavers to exchange their experience and duty officers at the centre will give advice when necessary as chat room hosts.

Mrs Tan urged school leavers to adopt a pragmatic approach in choosing a career or making a decision in further studies. "Graduates should identify their own interests, build on their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. They should always be prepared to better equip themselves to face the challenges ahead and cope with the ever-increasing demands of the society," she added.

"Those who have excelled in the examination should keep up with their good efforts, while those who have failed should never give up," she said.

"The Labour Department stands ready to offer assistance to school leavers. With the support of parents, employers, training bodies and other key players, we will try our best to improve the employability of youngsters. Both the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme and the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme have been launched to achieve this aim," she said.

The advisory centre is situated at the Fresh Fish Traders' School at 33 Sycamore Street, Tai Kok Tsui. It will be open from 10 am to 7 pm from today to August 9, and from 10 am to 1 pm on August 10.

During the same period, the enquiry hotline and on-line chat room service will run from 9 am to 7 pm, with round-the-clock service from 9 am on August 7 to 7 pm on August 9.