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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, to a question by the Hon David Li on government-funded training programmes in the Legislative Council today (June 11):
Question:
In reply to my question at the Legislative Council meeting of December 19, 2007, the Government advised that no separate statistics were available on the enrolment of new arrivals from the Mainland in government-funded training programmes other than those provided under the Employees Retraining Scheme. Furthermore, no separate assessment had been made on the effectiveness of these programmes on the basis of the duration of residence of the trainees. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council what procedures are in place to evaluate the effectiveness of government-funded training programmes, when such procedures were last reviewed, and whether it will consider adding new evaluation criteria in order to better monitor the effectiveness of such programmes in assisting trainees (such as those who are new arrivals from the Mainland) in securing stable employment?
Reply:
Madam President,
With a view to enhancing the employability and competitiveness of the local workforce, the Government organises and funds a number of training programmes to meet the training needs of local residents with different backgrounds and qualifications. They include the training programmes organised by the Labour Department; training and retraining courses offered by the Employees Retraining Board; courses run by the Vocational Training Council and those organised under the Skills Upgrading Scheme. Reviews and evaluations are conducted from time to time and new evaluation criteria are added, where appropriate, to monitor the effectiveness of these programmes in meeting their respective objectives. Details of the mechanism for evaluating the programmes are set out at Annex.
Ends/Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:58
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