I was honoured to work with KELY Support Group over the past several months in Hong Kong. This was a small, yet rewarding way of ‘giving back’ to the society that I have lived in for the past 6 years.
KELY is a non-government funded organisation which provides support to Hong Kong’s youth. They offer various programmes aiming to equip them with key life skills and resilience as they face various challenges growing up in Hong Kong. One such programme is a work placement programme targeting Ethnic Minority youth. Many of these individuals face inequalities and barriers which make it difficult for them to gain employment and build a successful career. Many of them believe this is out of their reach.
Austen Advisory partnered with KELY to run a career exploration session for around 60 ethnic minority youth as the kick off session of their work placement and learning programme. The goal of the session was to help them think through their career aspirations and prepare them for their work placement. Many of them were unaware of the full spectrum of career paths or felt many were out of their reach.
The session included a fun personality fit activity to focus them on what types of career paths might align to their interests and natural strengths. We used archetypes of famous people as examples to make it fun and interactive.
We then facilitated a career journey planning group discussion to help them think through their individual career goals and expectations for their work placement. The participants were guided by volunteer facilitators, representing a range of professions – they offered guidance on their concerns and helped them connect their short-term experiences with long-term goals.
The session was a great success and perceived as insightful, memorable and practical by those who participated.
“Rachel’s work helped increase the motivation, knowledge and goal setting skill sets of the young people, increasing their self-awareness and employability. It was a fun and engaging activity that was positively evaluated by the participants and will have an important impact on their ability to enter the workplace.”
– Jenny Bate, Programme Manager, KELY Support Group
