- 6-
30. Mr. Ho impressed me as a man who is likely to succeed in anything tackles. If he is successful in putting over a television programme in technical education in Hong Kong, then it may be possible for similar programmes to be offered elsewhere in overseas countries with a City and Guilds certificate as the goal.
Public Works Department
31. Discussions were held with Mr. F. M. Laishley, the Apprentice Training Officer of the Public Works Department Mechanical and Electrical Section on 9th February. Mr. Laishley explained that entrants to apprenticeship to the P.W.D. tend to be of a fairly low level educationally and had not normally passed beyond Form III at school. Training is carried out in Chinese. He was most interested in our coursework schedules for subject 820 Basic Engineering Trade Subjects which he thought would be a great help to him in running his own training programmes. We had a short talk with Mr. J. A. Wallace, the Principal Government Electrical and Mechanical Engineer, who was most unhappy about the haste with which S.I. Units had been introduced into engineering and the consequent transition problems which were being met.
Government Labour Department
32. On 11th February Mr. Horace Knight, the Senior Training Officer (Apprenticeships) of the Government Labour Department, talked to me about the progress in the number of firms in Hong Kong offering apprenticeship schemes. To date there are 165 firms offering such schemes with 1,018 apprentices under training (243 at technician level; 775 at craft level). Prior to the establishing of the Apprentice Unit in the Labour Department in January, 1969 less than 20 firms were offering apprenticeships. An educational element is included in apprenticeship schemes and is undertaken either at the Hong Kong Polytechnic or at the Morrison Hill Technical Institute.
33. At craft level, training is normally carried out in Chinese and only technician apprentices take City and Guilds examinations.
Public Services Examinations Unit
34. Because of difficulties being experienced in assessing qualifications by the Public Services Examinations Unit I was invited to meet the Senior Examinations Officer, Miss M. J. Knowles. She has the task of recommending recognition for salary purposes of the qualifications of candidates from a number of countries including U.K., Australia, Canada, U.S.A., China and some European countries. Quite clearly, City and Guilds could not advise on equating its own examinations to those of numerous foreign countries but there should be little difficulty in establishing the level of City and Guilds examinations. I explained the various technical examinations held in U.K. at craft and technician levels and arranged to send for her personal use a copy of the City and Guilds internal document "Classification of City and Guilds Subjects".
Far East Flying and Technical School
35. This School which is located at the airport was visited on 12th February. It enters students for our Aeronautical Eng.Tech. examinations. The whole School operates under very conjested conditions. It is housed in a small hangar with classrooms in the annexes. Some of the equipment is ancient and it lacks certain basic engineering equipment. Nevertheless, it seems to cope