The Ministry of Labor (MOL) and several other agencies have jointly proposed a three-year, NT$14 billion (US$461 million) plan to promote youth employment and develop a young labor force that will raise the nation's competitiveness, Premier Jiang Yi-huah remarked at today's Cabinet meeting after an MOL briefing on the results and prospects of relevant efforts.
The program emphasizes increasing not only the number of employed youths but also the quality of their performance, with the hope of beefing up their preparedness for work, cultivating positive attitudes, enhancing job capabilities and improving work environments.
The proposed youth employment plan aims to further enhance the combined efforts across agencies, the MOL said. It covers 64 schemes and the collaboration of 11 government bodies, including the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The plan is intended to provide 150,000 young people with assistance in finding employment as well as setting career goals, developing positive work attitudes, getting opportunities that match their interests and talents, and helping industries to establish proper working environments so as to attract youths ready to join the labor force.
The premier enjoined the MOL and relevant ministries to work together to proactively implement the program under the coordination of Minister without Portfolio Feng Yen. Moreover, they should proceed from the perspective of the youth to enhance publicity and promotion as well as resource integration so as to maximize the program's impact, he added.
Noting that the global economic situation has been very volatile lately and may well be affecting domestic employment, the premier directed the MOL and related ministries to conduct rolling reviews and strengthen resource linkage and integration. Should any problems arise or areas require coordination in the process of implementation, Feng Yen will supervise and provide needed assistance, he said.
With regard to Taichung City's proposition to strengthen cooperation between central and local governments, Jiang stated that since young people may be unlikely to enquire about jobs through central government channels or the MOL Workforce Development Agency's regional offices, how to extend help, provide cross-ministerial resources and make known the details of various measures to local governments hinge on whether local and central governments can collaborate in promoting and publicizing the program. The premier thus directed the MOL to ensure such collaboration is being carried out.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) stated that currently there are about 780,000 people already working in the financial sector, and financial businesses will soon expand in scale to raise their competitiveness. A February survey of financial businesses estimated that the sector will need to hire about 20,000 more employees, which should help boost youth employment.
The FSC is thus guiding financial associations to host job fairs. It hopes that in addition to matching jobs with job-seekers, providing career-planning services and cultivating occupational abilities, communication between the financial industry and the general public will be strengthened to contribute to youth employment.