Most teens want to stay in HK for study, work: survey
A survey of final-year secondary schoolchildren has found that the majority were hoping to study in Hong Kong and then stay in the territory afterwards for work.  Recruitment and training agency Quality People said on Thursday that between November last year and January this year, it polled nearly 3,000 students getting ready to sit their DSEs. Ninety-four percent were hoping to continue in education after the exams. Of these young people, 87 percent wanted to stay in Hong Kong, 5 percent wanted to go to the mainland, and the remaining 8 percent were hoping to travel further afield for university. When it came to where they would eventually get jobs, 76 percent of the respondents said they would like to stay in Hong Kong, 5 percent fancied the mainland, and the rest were eyeing up work in other parts of the world. In a similar survey last year, a lower percentage of students – 70 percent – expressed the hope that they could build their careers in the SAR.  The agency's director, Edward Chan, said despite the growing appeal of Hong Kong, the government and others must still work to persuade young people that their futures lie in the city. "I think the government, the schools and the universities, they have to do something to keep them in here, instead of making more rules and regulations," Chan said. The agency called on the government to offer a higher number of scholarships, suggesting they could in return get pledges from students that they would work in the SAR for two years after completing their degrees. The survey also found that the most popular career choices were teaching, nursing and medicine, while law was the most unpopular. Popular university subjects included psychology and education, but not many fancied learning any more English.