ENG-2009 — Page 177

Employment | 125

incurred during job searches, and an On-the-job Transport Allowance of $600 per month for up to 12 months.

At year's end, the scheme received 38 165 applications for which $290 million was earmarked for successful applicants and $170 million was paid out.

Helping the Disabled Find Jobs

The Labour Department's Selective Placement Division helps people with disabilities to integrate into the community through open employment. It provides free employment counselling and placement services to people with hearing or visual impairment, the physically handicapped, chronically ill, mentally handicapped, ex-mentally ill and people with specific learning difficulties and attention deficit or hyperactivity disorders. The division launched a series of employment programmes and promotional events in 2009 to help these people secure jobs. It registered 3 185 such job seekers and found work for 2 436 of them during the year.

The Labour Department has been running a Work Orientation and Placement Scheme since 2005 to improve the employment prospects of people with disabilities by giving them pre-employment training. Employers participating in the scheme receive a monthly allowance from the Labour Department. The financial incentive to employers was raised from 50 per cent to two-thirds of what they pay the disabled employee each month (subject to a maximum of $4,000) from June 29, 2009. At the same time, the subsidy period was extended from three months to a maximum of six months. By the end of the year, 1 628 people had undergone pre-employment training and 1 623 had found work.

Employment Agencies

The Labour Department's Employment Agencies Administration enforces Part XII of the Employment Ordinance and the Employment Agency Regulations which empower the department to inspect employment agencies to ensure they comply with the law, investigate complaints against the agencies and carry out other monitoring roles. It issued 1998 employment agency licences, refused one application and revoked two licences during the year.

Preparing People for Work

Youth Pre-employment Training Programme and Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme

The Youth Pre-employment Training Programme (YPTP) and the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS) provide a full range of pre-employment and on-the-job training lasting between six and 12 months for young people aged between 15 and 24 with educational attainment at sub-degree level or below, to enhance their employability. By the time they ended in August, over 90 000 young people had been trained under the YPTP, while the YWETS helped 62 200 secure jobs.

To strengthen further this effort, the Labour Department merged the YPTP and the YWETS in September to create a 'through-train' programme which provides