The Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) is studying the feasibility of advancing career planning from the senior high school level to Form 3, i.e., the third and last year of junior high school, to help students plan their future career blueprints as early as possible, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Wallis O Lam said on Friday.
O made the remarks during an oral interpellation plenary session on Friday in the legislature’s hemicycle, adding that the new measure aims to enable Form 3 students to understand Macau’s shortage of human resources and the future employment trends ahead of time, so that they can have a more appropriate choice of study programmes in senior high school or even at university.
The career planning programme for Form 3 students will include different themes each month, covering the expected demand for talents in the near future, and the employment trends for different industries, O said.
After students graduate from university and enter the job market, O said, the government will try to provide internship opportunities not just in local enterprises, but also those in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Bay Area (GBA), providing access for students to high-quality enterprises and understand more about the employment environment.
As for young people starting out in the workplace, the government will launch a joint employment programme with the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), with the aim of providing support for those choosing the GBA as their career starting point.
During Friday’s plenary session, some lawmakers raised concerns about difficulties encountered by young people with no practical working experience when finding jobs.
DSAL Employment Department Chief Lei Lai Keng said the bureau provides over 1,000 internship places each year, among which, most are provided by Macau’s integrated resorts, adding that about 640 students can expected to be employed right after completing their internships.
Lawmaker-cum-banker Ngan Iek Hang pointed out that as Macau’s industries are not diversified enough and the employment choices for young people are limited, and it is difficult to find full-time jobs offering professional career and good development prospects as well as higher salaries, asking the government about its measures to further protect the employment rights of young people and implement the ratio of local staff employed by enterprises.
Lei responded that in order to further consolidate Macau’s aspired position as a World Centre for Tourism and Leisure, the government needs to make more flexible and pragmatic adjustments in human resources, adding that it was not appropriate to set a fixed ratio or impose inappropriate restrictions on the number of locals to be employed by local enterprises.
