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The Skills Enhancement Project designed for sectors hard-hit by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) will accept applications from next Monday (May 19) to 24 noon. The scheme caters for unemployed workers in the catering, retail, hotel and tourism sectors or workers in these sectors who are temporarily suspended from employment without pay.
"The project is one of the Government's relief measures in response to the outbreak of SARS. It aims to enable employees in the affected sectors to make the best use of their time to enhance themselves by providing skills improvement and upgrading courses, thereby further equipping them to re-enter their industry when the economy revives," a Government spokesman said today (May 16).
"The $150-million project will provide 10,000 training places and be conducted in two phases, each with 5,000 places. Among the 10,000 places, 3,000 will be for retail, 2,350 for catering, 1,250 for hotel and 3,400 for tourism sectors," he said.
The project, which is coordinated by the Employees Retraining Board (ERB), comprises two components, namely trade-specific skills enhancement training and complementary generic training which is applicable to all industries, each lasting for four weeks (20 days/120 hours).
The Skills Upgrading Scheme Secretariat will be the training agent for the trade-specific skills enhancement. There are integrated courses on customer services for Chinese catering (attendant) and on kitchen services for Chinese catering (chef), integrated courses for retail, hotel and tourism industries, and integrated tour guide training course.
Complementary generic training will be offered by the ERB, comprising four modular training on soft skills (such as job search skills, presentation and communication skills, team building and first aid, etc), English training (basic and higher level), Putonghua and basic computer training.
"All training courses are free of charge and trainees will receive special allowances during the whole period. Payment will be made by two instalments of every four weeks of training completed, subject to at least a 90 per cent attendance rate of each component. Allowance will be payable according to the actual attendance of participants at $200 per day for up to $4,000 per month," the spokesman said.
Applicants should be eligible employees in Hong Kong (including Hong Kong permanent residents and new arrivals), be employed in the catering, retail, hotel or tourism sectors before being unemployed or are on no-pay leave in the industries. Applicants for the Integrated Tour Guide Training Course must be employed as tour guides for at least one year.
"To ensure that the skills enhancement training will be provided to those who need it most, workers who have previously received the same industry training under the Skills Upgrading Scheme would not be eligible for the trade-specific skills enhancement part of the programme. However, they will be considered for admission to the generic skills training component if vacancies arise," the spokesman said.
The application form and an information leaflet on the project will be available for collection from May 19 onwards at the ERB Office, job centres of the Labour Department, district offices of the Home Affairs Department and about 100 participating training centres. They can also be downloaded from the ERB website (http://sep.erb.org) and the Labour Department's website (www.info.gov.hk/labour). Enquiries can be made to the special telephone hotline at 183 3113.
End/Friday, May 16, 2003
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