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The Education and Manpower Bureau will launch government-subsidised training courses tailor-made for the new medical and healthcare sector under the Skills Upgrading Scheme (SUS) at the end of this month (November).
Introducing the courses at a briefing and seminar today (November 23), Convenor of the Medical and Healthcare SUS Industry Working Group Professor Leung Ping-chung said the courses would provide focused skills training for the frontiers healthcare workers, clinic nurses and Chinese medicine employees.
"The courses will improve the professional skills and healthcare knowledge competences of the in-service workers, and further enhance the standard of the industry as a whole."
"The government has set aside about $4.7 million to subsidise the training costs, which will be able to improve the skills of more than 6,200 in-service workers," Professor Leung said.
Also present at the briefing, representative from Hong Kong Doctors Union and The Hong Kong Medical Association Dr Yeung Chiu-fat said that 262 classes offering 28 different courses would be launched under the scheme.
The courses will cover training on nursing care in hospital and clinic, medical ethics, occupational safety, infection control, basic training on Western and Chinese medicine usage as well as control management of the medicine.
"Generic subjects including Vocational English and Mandarin, application of computer software and management of clinic will also be offered," Dr Leung said.
Enrolment of the courses has now commenced. Details can be obtained by calling hotline 2836 1234 or from the website http://sus.vtc.edu.hk/index.asp.
With the recent addition of the automobile sector to the scheme, the SUS now covers 23 industries. Since its inception in 2001, the scheme provides focused skills training for in-service workers with secondary or lower education level so as to maintain their competitiveness in the labour market. So far, more than 6,600 classes have been conducted for more than 136,000 workers.
Ends/Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Issued at HKT 15:30
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