While the On-the-Job Train­ing (OJT) Pro­gramme is man­dat­ed to pre­pare young peo­ple for the labour mar­ket, dozens of trainees re­port work­place ha­rass­ment each year, in­clud­ing sex­u­al ha­rass­ment and bul­ly­ing.

Pro­gramme di­rec­tor Joann David told the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on So­cial Ser­vices and Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion that the OJT Pro­gramme record­ed an av­er­age of 50 such cas­es an­nu­al­ly be­tween 2022 and 2025 at work­places where trainees are as­signed. The pro­gramme serves ap­prox­i­mate­ly 4,000 trainees aged 18 to 35.

David, who as­sumed the role in 2019, said con­cerns about stress and work­place ex­po­sure among young trainees led to the in­tro­duc­tion of a psy­chol­o­gist in 2022 on a pi­lot ba­sis.