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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (May 26):
Question:
The Employees Retraining Board (ERB) has relaxed the eligibility criteria of employees retraining courses to cover persons aged 15 or above since 2007, and has planned to gradually increase the number of training places to 200 000. Yet, I have recently received complaints from some organisations that although the number of training places has been increased, ERB, when vetting and approving applications for becoming training bodies, favours one more than another and often rejects the applications submitted by some small-scale organisations. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(a) whether the qualifications for becoming a training body include the scale of the applicant organisation; and
(b) the number of organisations which applied for becoming training bodies in each of the past three years and, among them, the number of those whose applications were rejected, the reasons for rejection, and the list of the rejected organisations?
Reply:
President,
(a) ERB is an independent statutory body. Applications for becoming appointed training bodies of ERB have to be vetted and approved by ERB. ERB will then announce the appointments by notice in the Gazette in accordance with the Employees Retraining Ordinance (Cap. 423). The relevant organisation will become an appointed training body of ERB after completion of the related statutory procedures, and may thereafter take part in the tendering exercises for organising ERB courses.
ERB considers the applications from the organisations on the basis of the following key factors ¡V
(i) background and governance of the organisation;
(ii) experience in adult/youth education and vocational training;
(iii) availability of employers' network and capability in providing placement services;
(iv) quality of instructors and training facilities;
(v) location of training venues;
(vi) contribution to ERB¡¦s courses and services; and
(vii) merits of the new course proposal(s) submitted by the organisation.
The scale of the organisation is not among the factors for consideration.
(b) During the period from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2010, ERB received applications from a total of 64 organisations (including 15 organisations in 2007-08, 12 in 2008-09 and 37 in 2009-10), of which 20 have already become appointed training bodies. Fourteen organisations have been approved and the related gazetting procedure will be undertaken shortly. Applications from another 22 organisations are being processed. The remaining eight organisations have been rejected. The main reasons for rejection are:
(i) the contents of the courses proposed by the organisations duplicate with those of ERB's existing courses. Such courses are not regarded as new from ERB¡¦s perspective and are not able to inject new elements into the services of ERB; and
(ii) the organisations lack relevant experience in education and vocational training or the provision of placement services, have failed to provide information on job openings and employers¡¦ network, or do not have sufficient training facilities, etc.
Organisations which have their applications rejected may apply to ERB again when they are ready. ERB does not set any limit on the number of times an organisation may apply.
As agreed between ERB and the organisations submitting applications, the information submitted by these organisations will only be used for the purpose of vetting and approval of applications (including the gazetting procedure) and organising courses in future. Information submitted by the rejected organisations will be destroyed six months from the date on which ERB issued written notification on the outcome of application. In the light of the above arrangement which aims to protect the information submitted by these organisations, ERB cannot provide the list of rejected organisations.
Ends/Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:16
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