Long-term unemployment for young people should be immediately addressed by the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education, the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare said on Thursday in response to Monday’s MRT attack.
Kuo Yen-chun (郭彥君) is accused of injuring four people when he slashed at people with a knife at the MRT Zhongshan Station.
The incident came just more than a year after the attack on May 21 last year in which Cheng Chieh (鄭捷), a 21-year-old university student, killed four people and injured 22 on a Taipei MRT train on the Bannan Line.
According to the alliance’s poll, 97 percent of high-school students start thinking about the future in their first year of high school, but schools only offer guidance courses or seminars in the third year.
Only 51 percent of students take action to achieve their goals, the poll found, adding that 57 percent of youths said they experience great pressure for further studies or work after graduation.
Another 65 percent of polled individuals said they were afraid of making the “wrong decision.”
Alliance general secretary Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said it is evident that young people who are unemployed for sustained periods of time are doing less well than their employed peers.
“We do not seek to label them as ‘high-risk’ and it really isn’t a matter of whether they stay at home all day in front of their computers or TV; it’s a matter of answering why they are unemployed for so long,” Yeh said.
Yeh said that the ministries need to develop precautionary measures to prevent these youths from entering unsafe and unstable work conditions, as well as setting up precautionary channels to relocate them and provide counseling.
While the government established employment services to help alleviate the situation, the focus is not on young people, Yeh said.
The ministries should work together to provide more employment services and focus on troubled young people, Yeh said, adding that more funding should also be provided for private organizations that offer employment services to youths.
Yeh said that figures from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics show that the number of young people from 15 to 29 years old who are unemployed for one full year has risen to 30,000, with the number set to increase.
“This is nearly double the unemployment rate from 2008,” Yeh said.
Yeh said that during Kuo’s period of unemployment, he received no government aid.
According to the poll, many young people said they feel lost when looking for their first job, adding that a lack of career planning means they accept unstable jobs and work conditions, Yeh said.
The problem is the lack of resources and information provided at school that would prompt young people to think about their careers, Yeh said.
The poll has found that people mostly start planning for their future in the first year of high-school and rely primarily on mainstream media for information, Yeh said.
Yeh said that the media could provide opportunities with internships and camps to develop secondary skills.
Yeh highlighted the alliance’s joint project with FamilyMart that invites young people to intern at the convenience stores and said the experience is a positive opportunity that helps young people develop skills and plan for a career.
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