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The Government and relevant training providers will collaborate closely to implement measures of helping elementary workers to seek employment and to upgrade their skills; and to enable the more vulnerable groups to compete in a level playing field.

Explaining the manpower policy outlined in the Policy Address at a press conference today (October 13), the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mrs Fanny Law, said that in the face of the rapid social changes, Hong Kong's local workforce must keep abreast of the times, acquire new knowledge and upgrade their skills so as to maintain their competitiveness in the labour market.

"Employers should also encourage and assist their employees to receive training and to add value. It is only by so doing that we can get into our strides and enhance the competitiveness of our enterprises," she said.

Mrs Law pointed out that with the advent of a knowledge-based economy and China's accession to the World Trade Organisation, Hong Kong was undergoing another stage of economic restructuring.

"Looking ahead, with the opening up of the Mainland market, the restructuring of the local economy and the advancement in science and technology, there will be an upsurge of manpower demand in industries relating to information technology and high value-added services. On the other hand, elementary workers with low skills and low education attainment will need to upgrade their skills as soon as possible to enhance their competitiveness in employment," she said.

To gain a clearer picture of Hong Kong's future manpower needs and identify potential gaps between supply and demand, the Education and Manpower Bureau, in collaboration with the Government Economist and relevant bureaux and departments, are conducting an assessment of Hong Kong's future manpower requirements by broad industries, occupations and educational levels in the next five years.

"We are also collecting views regarding local employment prospect and future training needs of workers through a household survey and business establishment survey as well as extensive consultations among employers' associations and labour organizations. In parallel, we have commissioned academics to carry out a special study to look into the employment prospect of middle aged workers. These two studies are expected to be completed by the end of this year and the findings will be used as an important reference for formulating training and retraining strategies in the longer term," Mrs Law said.

"We need to help employees of different industries to find new jobs or adapt to the new mode of working, and on the other hand provide the necessary manpower resources for the growing industries. To this end, we have earmarked $400 million for the provision of focused skills training for the employed and unemployed with secondary or below educational levels. The aim is to upgrade their job skills to meet the needs of the industries.

"During the next six months, we will set up a steering committee and will consult the industries affected by the economic restructuring on the skills upgrading needs of their elementary workers before working out the appropriate programmes and the training mode.

"We expect the first batch of courses to commence in the second quarter of next year. Subject to market response, particularly the co-operation of employers, we estimate that about 50,000 people will benefit from the scheme in the following two years. The Vocational Training Council (VTC) will be responsible for the daily administrative work of the scheme under the steer of the steering committee and will submit regular reports to the committee," she added.

Commenting on the work of the Employees Retraining Board (ERB), Mrs Law said: "To demonstrate our long-term commitment to the provision of retraining service, we propose to provide recurrent subvention to the ERB from the 2001-02 financial year onwards. The subvention in the first year amounts to $400 million."

"Supported by a stable source of income, the ERB will be in a better position to conduct long term forward planning and respond to market needs more promptly and flexibly. With the new funding arrangement, we will draw up a Memorandum of Understanding with the ERB, setting out key service requirements as well as performance indicators to ensure the effectiveness of retraining work.

"To encourage trainees to start their own business, the ERB has introduced self-employment retraining courses. To tie in with this new initiative, we will consider, together with the ERB, the establishment of a revolving start-up fund so as to provide concrete assistance to people of the grassroot level who wish to start their own business. Forms of assistance may include loans for the purchase of the necessary paraphernalia, provison of common facilities and other supporting services," she said.

To address the problem of older workers' inability of landing new jobs, the Labour Department will introduce, in the coming year, a pilot project to provide one-stop personal service for persons over the age of 40 who have been unemployed for more than three months. The service will cover employment counselling, training needs analysis and pre-employment training. A training allowance will be granted to employers who employ them and provide the induction training.

"The aim of the project is to enable older workers who have been unemployed for some time to better understand the market needs and the level of their own skills, while at the same time motivate employers to give assistance to persons who have been unemployed for a certain period of time so as to help them find jobs as soon as possible," Mrs Law explained.

Furthermore, the Government will introduce a new component of on-the-job training to the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme. The Project Springboard for Secondary Five leavers who wish to pursue further studies have also been launched. The content of the programme focuses on providing training on basic language and information technology abilities as well as practical knowledge. These two programmes provide training to about 20,000 trainees each year.

In conclusion, Mrs Law said in the coming year, the key areas of work are to assess the future manpower needs of Hong Kong, to formulate appropriate employment and retraining policies, to lend assistance to the more vulnerable groups (e.g. young school leavers and workers of low skills and education), to upgrade their skills and to re-establish their confidence to cope with the economic restructuring, as well as to strengthen the employment service in a bid to help workers to be self-reliant.

End/Friday, October 13, 2000

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