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Although the short-term employment prospects of low-skilled workers aged over 40 with only junior secondary education or below will improve as a result of the economic recovery, the Government have not relaxed its efforts in providing active employment assistance and training for them.

The Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong said this at the resumed debate on the 2000 Appropriate Bill in the Legislative Council today (April 5).

Mr Wong said that of the job-seekers who successfully found jobs through direct assistance from the Local Employment Service of the Labour Department between January 1999 and February 2000, 11,681 were aged over 40. In other words, out of about three successful job-seekers, one belonged to that age group.

"As providing training for elementary workers is one of Government's priority items, the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) was set up in 1992 and the amount of grants provided by Government to the ERB has been increasing," Mr Wong said.

"From April last year to the end of January this year, more than 36,800 retrainees of the ERB were aged over 40, accounting for 55.7 per cent of total retrainees during the period. The placement rate for retrainees aged over 40 graduating from full-time courses was 74 per cent.

On the financial situation of the ERB, Mr Wong emphasized that the ERB had sufficient resources for all its activities this year.

"In fact, as at end of March this year, the balance of the Employees Retraining Fund is about $542 million. In ERB's estimates for 2000-01, the total expenditure is over $410 million, an increase by 7.8 per cent over the actual expenditure of last year. It is estimated that the total number of retraining places and the number of places in full-time courses designed for the unemployed will increase by 5.6 per cent and 16.3 per cent to 100,000 and 50,400 respectively over last year," he noted.

Mr Wong also pledged that the Government would conduct a review on the long-term financial arrangements of the Employees Retraining Fund within this year.

Commenting on criticisms by some legislators that the Budget had not taken into account the needs of older elementary workers, Mr Wong explained that the measures to promote employment and encourage continuing education as announced in the Budget would benefit not only young school leavers, but also the older elementary workers.

"For example, out of the 300 trainees in the pilot Information Technology Assistant Course recently launched, more than one-fourth are over 30. Similarly, the "Project Springboard" is not only designed for secondary 5 school leavers, adult learners can also participate and receive continuing education.

"Programmes under the project will be mainly skill-based, with emphasis on biliteracy and trilingualism, information technology as well as certain practical subjects, with a view to preparing students for employment and further education in future. There will be full-time and part-time evening courses under the project to meet the needs of different people.

"Further extension of the Non-means Tested Loan Scheme will also help ensure that all adults aspiring to learn will not be deprived of the chance to pursue further education for lack of financial means."

Mr Wong noted that as the economy became more and more information-based, it would be more and more difficult for the older elementary workers to find work in the next five to ten years.

"In order to formulate mid to long-term strategy to enhance the employability of older workers, we have commissioned the Hong Kong Institute of Economic and Business Strategy of the University of Hong Kong to carry out a special study. It will include an analysis of the employment prospect in the labour market for the older workers and interviews with employer groups and trade associations, with a view to collecting their views on the training and retraining needs of these workers.

"It is expected that the study will be completed by August this year. The results will be used to formulate strategies of training and retraining for these older workers in the longer term," he said.

End/Wednesday, April 5, 2000

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