Young people who are pushed into self-reliance early are often exploited in the job market due to their limited educational attainment, but one civic group is trying to help by offering skills courses and counseling.
In 2017, about 111,000 people aged 15 to 19 held jobs, about 56 percent of whom worked part-time or in temporary jobs, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics data showed.
Among this group is a special subset of teenagers who, for any number of reasons, needed to grow up faster than their peers and live independently.
As part of its work providing care for victims of domestic and sexual abuse, the Garden of Hope Foundation has encountered many young people who had to find work after falling into economic hardship.
However, this group still faces mounting challenges before they can become self-sufficient.
The foundation on Thursday convened an online news conference to shed light on these challenges, often covered up in a society that expects children to focus on their education.
Most people assume that teenagers should prioritize their studies and therefore do not encourage those who are looking for work, National Taipei University Department of Social Work professor Hu Chung-yi (胡中宜) said.
Teenagers seeking work are often left with limited and unstable options, as their interrupted academic record disqualifies them from many positions, Hu said.
As a result, many are left with hourly contract work in labor-intensive industries, often without health or labor insurance, experiencing withheld wages, Hu added.
Since 2019, the foundation has been working with the Citi Foundation to help those teenagers “become the masters of their own fate,” Hu said.
The program has thus far helped 637 people through 12 training courses of 20 hours training each, 23 48-hour courses and five professional certification classes, the Garden of Hope Foundation said.
Nearly 30 percent of the participants might now be considered “skilled workers,” with 74 of them having completed skills training, 47 having completed internships and 68 having found stable work, it added.
In one case, a teenager was working long hours for only NT$20,000 a month without insurance before they entered the program, foundation chief executive officer Wang Yue-hao (王玥好) said.
After receiving skills training, the participant obtained a scooter driving license and baking certifications, and now works as a bakery technician, she added.
The program is built around relationships, strives for employment and sets self-sufficiency as its goal, said Chen Pei-hsi (陳沛熙), a social worker at the Garden of Hope Foundation’s Taichung office.
After first building a relationship with the participant and helping them work through past traumas, counselors help them explore different interests and career options, Chen said.
Life skills and financial management courses paired with more flexible workplaces provided by understanding employers allow the young people to gradually build positive workplace experiences, Chen added.
Government policy on youth employment pays little attention to those in high-risk situations, but for those in dire financial straits, finding work is a monumental task they were not taught in school, the Garden of Hope Foundation said.
The foundation hopes to build new partnerships across industries, as well as more carefully analyze the intentions behind participants’ choices to create a program that can keep growing and help more young people become independent, it said.
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