As from September 1999, the VTC will offer a new one year full-time Foundation Diploma to 2,000 secondary 5 leavers with three passes in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination or equivalent. A part-time evening certificate course offering 760 places will also be introduced. The courses aim to upgrade the trainee's generic skills, especially communication and IT skills, and to help them develop positive working attitudes. The CVS is divided into services and engineering streams and graduates will be equipped for higher technician, technician and craft level positions. The employment prospect in the construction industry is improving.
CITA trainees have good employment prospects.
The Labour Department was able to secure about 12,000 job vacancies in April. It also assisted over 3,300 persons to find jobs. About 30 per cent of the successful job seekers are young persons aged 15-24. The Interactive Employment Service launched in March continued to gain in popularity. Some 190,000 web surfers have visited the website since March.