****************************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau Wai-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (May 18):
Question:
Regarding the courses offered by the Employees Retraining Board ("ERB"), will the Executive Authorities inform this Council whether they know:
(a) among the trainees of these courses in the past five years, the respective numbers and percentages of women who were not working as they had to take care of their families, those who were unemployed and those who were new arrivals in Hong Kong;
(b) if ERB had collected statistics on the courses participated by the various aforesaid types of women in the past five years, so as to design courses suitable for them; if it had, of the 10 courses attended by the largest number of these women as well as the 10 courses attended by the smallest number of them, and the percentages of these women in the total number of trainees in the respective courses; and
(c) if ERB has included the concept of gender mainstreaming when designing the retraining courses, so as to meet the needs of different types of women; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(a) The numbers of women enrolled in placement-tied courses offered by the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) for the unemployed and their percentages in the total numbers of the trainees of the courses in the past five years were as follows:
Year Number of Percentage of
unemployed women unemployed women
enrolled in in the total number of
placement-tied trainees of placement-
courses tied courses
2006-07 36 087 73%
2007-08 34 803 74%
2008-09 39 825 71%
2009-10 41 622 71%
2010-11 38 956 74%
The numbers of new arrival women enrolled in ERB courses and their percentages in the total numbers of ERB trainees in the past five years were as follows:
Year Number of Percentage of
new arrival women new arrival women
enrolled in in the total number of
ERB courses ERB trainees
2006-07 16 237 18%
2007-08 14 877 18%
2008-09 14 559 16%
2009-10 14 990 15%
2010-11 15 319 16%
ERB does not maintain a breakdown on the number of female trainees who stay out of the workforce to take care of their families.
(b) ERB has all along been adopting an employment-oriented approach in developing its courses. Drawing reference from labour market data on employment and vacancies, manpower demand of various industries, relevant manpower surveys and latest developments of society, ERB looks into the manpower demand of industries with placement and development prospect for its service targets in order to develop and design courses that meet their employment needs.
Currently, ERB provides about 800 training courses covering nearly 30 industries for different service targets. With its highly diversified courses, ERB is able to offer plenty of options for different gender groups, and no one has ever been denied access to training opportunities on the ground of gender.
In the light of the fact that many new arrivals at the grassroots level, in particular women, lack the basic vocational skills in language, information technology, etc. for the local labour market, ERB introduced a pilot course known as "Certificate in Foundation Skills for Employment" in 2010-11 to provide training on such basic skills for new arrival women. Child care service was also provided for the trainees through the "Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project" of the Social Welfare Department during the training period. ERB is extending the training and service to all districts over the territory in 2011-12 to benefit more new arrival women in need.
The top ten categories of courses attended by the largest and smallest number of unemployed or new arrival women in the past five years and the related information are set out at Annex 1 and Annex 2 respectively.
(c) ERB is committed to providing diversified options for its service targets by exploring and developing new courses in different industries. When drawing up the curriculum, entry requirements and modes of training, it will use its best endeavour to ensure that these entry requirements and modes of training will not constitute sex discrimination or cause negative impact on women. ERB also takes into account the needs of women in designing courses so as to provide them with suitable assistance. For instance, as mentioned in part (b) above, ERB launched the pilot course "Certificate in Foundation Skills for Employment" in 2010-11 in the light of the needs of new arrival women and provided child care services for them through collaboration with the "Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project" of the Social Welfare Department so that they could be relieved to receive training.
Since the establishment of ERB in 1992, more than 1.5 million trainees have participated in its courses. Among them, more than 70% are women. ERB believes that some of its training courses (such as the certificate courses for post-natal carers and domestic helpers) have been a great impetus for unleashing hidden female workforce in the community. Through these training courses, women who have to take care of their families or who lack qualifications and working experience can also make significant contribution to the community.
Ends/Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Issued at HKT 12:17
NNNN