Walking side by side with young people
22 April 2018
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The current-term Government attaches much importance to youth development. Following the success of the well-received Pilot Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth, another innovative initiative is coming up. “Be a Government Official for a Day”, a new programme under the “Life Buddies” Mentoring Scheme organised by the Commission on Poverty, will be launched to provide senior secondary students with the opportunities to “job shadow” designated top government officials for a day during the coming summer holiday.
We are committed to engaging young people in public affairs, including debating policies and participating in policy discussion and formulation. This job shadowing programme is clearly part of our endeavour to connect and walk side by side with the younger generation. The idea of giving senior secondary students first-hand knowledge about the Government’s operation and the work of a Principal Official in a typical day also demonstrates in full our new style of governance that stresses innovation, transparency, and willingness to listen and interact more with the public.
All the three Secretaries and 13 Bureau Directors will take part in the programme, ready to share with students experiences about their personal growth, studies and careers as well as the passion and anticipation for their work. In return, through interacting with students, these high-level officials can learn more about the young participants’ ideas and aspirations for the future, and can inspire them to work hard and get equipped to strive for their goals.
The programme, to be run from July to August this summer holiday, will be open to students in Secondary 4 and 5 in the 2017/18 academic year. Those who are self-motivated, interested in public service, and have good analytical and communication skills may participate in the programme through school nomination. Participants will be given comprehensive support throughout the programme, including pre-programme orientation, personal guidance during job-shadowing, and debriefing and sharing afterwards. All these activities, to be led by mentors experienced in coaching and counselling, will be most inspiring and fruitful for the students.
Details of the programme will be announced tomorrow (23 April). Application will then be open until 11 May. I encourage interested students to apply and hope that the opportunity of exchanging views with me and 15 other Principal Officials will give the participants a memorable experience.
Also under the “Life Buddies” Mentoring Scheme, two existing regular programmes have met with success for two academic years in a row, namely the School-based Mentoring Programme and the “Exposure in Workplace”. In the 2017/18 academic year, mentors were recruited by “Life Buddies” from 44 different government departments, corporations and organisations. Together with about 70 mentors from the community, they formed 58 mentor teams to reach out to schools and provide services for over 850 students, including a wide range of periodic youth mentoring activities targeted senior forms.
The “Exposure in Workplace” offers students another platform for exchange and job shadowing with working adults. Last summer holiday, a total of 41 government departments, corporations and organisations were enlisted to offer more than 600 job-tasting opportunities.
Building on the established synergy, we will continue to leverage this tripartite community-business-government collaboration under the “Life Buddies” Mentoring Scheme to promote mentoring culture in the community. It is heartening to see that quite a number of new sponsors from government departments, corporations and organisations have responded positively to our appeal for support for the upcoming 2018/19 programmes. Recruitment of participating schools will also start in due course.
Meanwhile, the Youth Development Commission chaired by me was established on 1 April. We will formulate for the commission a detailed work plan to explore and deliberate in a holistic and effective manner policy issues of concern to young people, devise policy initiatives and oversee their implementation by relevant bureaux, and make the best use of the $1 billion earmarked in the Budget to promote youth development.
The highly positive feedback to the Pilot Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth from both the youth community and the wider public has prompted us to regularise the scheme and expand its scope to cover more committees. Two rounds of recruitment are expected each year. For the next round of recruitment, application will open this June. This time it covers 10 committees, spanning wider policy areas such as lands, transport, environment, social welfare, sports and education. The committees concerned are the Lantau Development Advisory Committee, Transport Advisory Committee, Council for Sustainable Development, Food Wise Hong Kong Steering Committee, Community Investment and Inclusion Fund Committee, Advisory Committee of the Partnership Fund for the Disadvantaged, Committee on Community Support for Rehabilitated Offenders, Advisory Committee on Enhancing Self-reliance Through District Partnership Programme, Community Sports Committee under the Sports Commission, and Joint Committee on Student Finance.
Youth policies should not be formulated under a one-way top-down approach. Rather, we have to provide young people with more opportunities to participate in public affairs. This is how we can have a better understanding of their thoughts and expectations, and ensure that the Government keeps up with the next generation.
