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The Social Welfare Department was presented with the Grand Prize of the Best Practices in Human Resource Development (HRD) Award by the Acting Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Michael Suen, at a HRD Award cum Symposium on Organisational Learning today (November 26).
Speaking at the Symposium, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph W P Wong, said: "It is never too much or too late when it comes to learning."
As a commitment to investing in people, the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) has prepared a Guide on Preparing a Departmental Training and Development (T&D)Plan to assist departments/grades to draw up their annual training and development plans starting from 2002-03.
Mr Wong said: "Management has to create an environment that is supportive of learning."
"The drawing up of a Departmental T&D Plan helps departments to think through and set out clearly their training targets, align their training and development activities with their strategic objectives and operational requirements, and allocate sufficient training resources for the purpose.
"It also gives staff a better appreciation of the learning opportunities available within and outside the department and enables them to choose the time and mode of learning that best suit their needs."
CSB will also issue a Directorate Leadership Development Guide by early next year.
"Through this Guide, we hope to encourage continuous and systematic learning by our directorate officers, help them set learning targets, and draw up personal development strategies and learning road maps. They will serve as role models for other staff," Mr wong added.
In April this year, a three-year Training and Development Programme was launched to strengthen training in support of the Civil Service Reform initiatives and to promote a continuous learning culture in the civil service. $50 million has been reserved for the Programme to provide 90,000 additional training places to civil servants in the next three years.
As a milestone of the Programme, today's HRD Award cum Symposium promotes best practices on organizational learning and gives recognition to bureaux/departments that have done well in promoting learning.
Two distinguished guest speakers, Ms Susan Burnett, Director of Enterprise Workforce Development of the Hewlett-Packard Company, and Mr Mervyn Davis, Group Executive Director of the Standard Chartered Bank, shared their insights and experience in promoting organization learning at the Symposium.
The Symposium was attended by more than 300 participants, including senior government officers and senior human resources managers from the private sector.
The Social Welfare Department also won the Best Presentation Award. The Housing Department and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department were awarded the Silver and Bronze Prizes respectively while the Hongkong Post and the Hong Kong Police Force received the Awards of Merit. The Immigration Department, Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Transport Department were given Meritorious Mention.
End/Monday, November 26, 2001
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