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summer schools etc would have much impact in Hong Kong, particularly as business and government can well afford to undertake such activities themselves. We also doubt whether such a scheme would have much effect in discouraging emigration.
C. Immersion English Language Training for Teachers
10. The Hong Kong Government are keen to raise the standard of English language skills amongst their teachers in training. The inclusion of a summer immersion course in the UK for all teacher trainees undergoing full time courses in Hong Kong's colleges of education could make a significant contribution to raising the level of skill of those entering the teaching profession in the 1990s. This scheme would help to give an immediate boost to the rapidly declining numbers of applicants for English courses in Hong Kong's teacher training colleges as well as significantly improving the standard of English attained by practising teachers. It is therefore a project with long term benefits for the UK.
It is very much in Britain's interests that English should be widely used and understood in the territory if Hong Kong is to continue to be a leading international financial and trading centre. From a presentational point of view this scheme would also have the advantage of benefiting the Hong Kong community as a whole rather than a small academic elite.
D.
Prince of Wales Fund for Training in New Technologies
11. The purpose of this scheme would be to offer loans to individual firms towards the cost of training middle management staff in the application of new technologies by arranging for short working attachments overseas. This has already been done on a small scale and has proved very successful. However, we understand that the Hong Kong Government already intend to go ahead with the creation of a fund for this purpose, irrespective of a possible British donation. While the Hong Kong Government consider that the association of the Prince of Wales, coupled with a substantial British Council donation, would give the fund a significant boost, our association with the project is not essential to its success, particularly as many of the training attachments would need to be in
SAIAAC(5)
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