Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Stephen Ip says quality human resources drive Hong Kong's economic development, adding it is important for the Government to nurture youngsters and their talent to maintain the city's competitive edge.

Launching the Youth Employment Home Base of the Youth Work Experience & Training Scheme (YWETS) today, Mr Ip said the project and the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme are two major government initiatives on job training for young people. They have been well received by the community and become the largest youth employment programmes in Hong Kong, training more than 110,000 people.

"These two programmes have been very successful as they are in tandem with international standards in terms of framework design and effectiveness, and they have been highly appraised by the International Labour Organisation," he said.

"Employer support for our youth employment policies is crucial in improving youth employment. The success of YWETS has proved that cross-sector collaboration could bear fruitful results in society."

Employer support

To give recognition to the continuous support of employers for the scheme, the Labour Department today acknowledged 22 enterprises as a Youth Employment Home Base.

Permanent Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Matthew Cheung hopes these enterprises will become a 'base' to encourage more employers to join the programmes.

"We also hope that more employers will consider supporting youth employment as an important criterion in the formulation of their long-term human resource plan and policies," he said.