Head of autism group calls for more support for Hong Kong youths ‘on last step’ before joining workforce
- Outgoing Heep Hong Society CEO Nancy Tsang says there is insufficient help in the period between graduation and employment
- NGOs should take initiative to try out welfare services as it is difficult for government to launch programmes without seeing results, she says
More needs to be done to prepare Hong Kong youths with special education needs for the workforce, according to the outgoing head of an NGO which has been serving the city’s children in need for more than half a century.
While Heep Hong Society CEO Nancy Tsang Lan-see acknowledged the government’s efforts to help those with special education needs at the kindergarten and primary levels, she lamented the insufficient support given to such youth in the period between graduation and employment.
“For example, while many of these teenagers are autistic, they are high-functioning with working abilities,” Tsang, who retires at the end of the year after 37 years of service at the NGO, said earlier this month.
As such, while many of these youths could not enter universities or tertiary institutes offering mainstream vocational education, she said it would be a waste to enrol them in services such as sheltered workshops and day activity centres.
Sheltered workshops are targeted at disabled youths with basic abilities aged 15 and above and focus mainly on basic skills training such as packaging, while day activity centres provide care and training in daily living skills and simple work skills to mentally disabled youth.
