Dear Editor
I am writing in response to Pat Chan’s letter on the issue of students worrying about their future in this period of financial meltdown. Faced with the economic downturn, it is natural that the students are pessimistic about the job market. However, I agree with Mr. Chan that secondary school students should equip themselves to face such challenges, and enhance their own competitiveness.
First, students should do well in their academic studies, especially in languages. Today, when the employees are deciding who to hire, the applicants with good language abilities are most probably preferred. In other words, good grades in language studies, both Chinese and English, mean golden entrance tickets to the job market. To improve their ability to master the languages, students should be exposed to newspapers and magazines with healthy content and proper language regularly or every day. They should also use proper language in their writing. This is not confined to the writing assignments, but also when they are writing their diaries or blog entries and chatting with their friends on the Internet. This can help the youngsters improve their language abilities, which will benefit their future career.
In addition, students’ ability to think independently and critically needs to be developed. Employers do not need robots, but humans, to work for them. It is good if the employees can present original ideas to their boss. Hence, thinking independently and critically is essential for students. To achieve this aim, students should seize opportunities to take part in activities like debating and creativity-training workshops, so that they can learn to have analytical and insightful thinking, and equip themselves for their future career.
Furthermore, students should eagerly acquire job experience. Employers seldom consider fresh graduates’ applications since much time and efforts will be needed to train these green employees. Therefore, in order to enhance their own competitiveness, students could take the opportunity to work when they are still in school. In these years, a variety of programmes like the Job Shadowing Scheme and Summer Job Experience Scheme are available for students to gain work experience. Students ought to join these programmes, so that such experience could be put in their resume, for the sake of their future career.
In summary, students should do well in their schoolwork, have critical and independent thinking, and seize chances to gain job experience during their secondary school years. I hope this letter will alert secondary school students to what they should do now to prepare themselves for their future career. Let us all encourage the youngsters to work hard and strive for their dreams.