ABOUT

South Asian youths are among the most underprivileged ethic-minority groups in Hong Kong, subjected to the government’s highly criticised and controversial racial policy where non-Chinese children are segregated to a restrictive pathway to higher education. As a result, only 10% are able to pursue tertiary studies, significantly narrowing job prospects and further fuelling a vicious cycle of cross-generational poverty.

Inequalities in education not only dramatically reduces the local talent pool, social imbalance also adversely impacts the economy and exacerbates poverty amongst ethnic-minority groups residing in the city. Having gained greater understanding of the deeply-rooted challenges faced by ethnic-minority youths, we mapped out a plan to help break the conventional job cycle. Working in partnership with ISS-HK, we launched The Job Shadow Programme, focusing on developing equality of opportunities in career pathways and to inspire these youths by presenting alternative career opportunities with first-hand experience. Additionally, we were also able to drive awareness towards cultural sensitivity and encourage more inclusive workplaces.

Six high-schoolers (15-17y/o) have now completed the programme, consisting of one-on-one mentoring sessions. Each participant was assigned a mentor across various functions of the agency, taking part in developing and presenting solutions to a hypothetical brief. Participants have described their experience as “life-changing” and optimistic about their future career prospects.

We crafted a documentary that followed our participants in a cinéma-vérité style during the programme. The film used intimate interviews with participants to help us understand individual and group dynamics and to examine the questions raised during their time together.

Recognising the potential to scale the programme further, we invited other organisations to join us in hopes of opening up an even wider spectrum of career opportunities. A programme toolkit has since been shared with industry leaders to achieve critical mass of beneficial returns. The purposely repeatable design of the toolkit allowed organisations to quickly adopt, implement and scale, reducing trial and error, ultimately increasing real impact.