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EMPLOYMENT
Some industries such as textiles and, to a lesser degree, garment manufacturing have their own schemes for training newly engaged operatives.
Training centres run by voluntary welfare organizations, as well as by government departments, offer forms of vocational training, mainly for the under-privileged, physically disabled young people placed in approved schools and prisoners. The Industrial Training Advisory Committee has appointed a functional committee to co- ordinate the industrial training activities of such centres.
The Hong Kong Technical College is the principal government institution providing technical education at technologist, technician, craft and pre-apprentice or pre-craft levels. There are also six government secondary technical schools, two non-government in- stitutions providing technical education for boys at secondary level and three secondary modern schools which provide three years of secondary education with a practical bias. The proposed technical institute will concentrate upon pre-apprenticeship, craft apprentice- ship and instructor training and will take over courses now run by the Hong Kong Technical College, permitting the College to con- centrate on higher levels. There are also courses in private schools for, among others, aircraft pilots, radio operators, radio technicians, typists, stenographers, book-keepers, dressmakers and tailors, artists, shoe-makers, rattan-workers, printers, wood-workers, painters and car drivers.
Apprenticeship systems in Hong Kong fall into either the tradi- tional sector or the modern westernized sector, based on the British pattern of craft apprenticeship which is followed by government workshops and some of the larger industrial concerns. A special feature is the award of overseas training opportunities to outstanding technical apprentices who have completed their local training. The Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company of Hong Kong Limited, the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company Limited, and the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited, train substantial numbers of apprentices, and some public utility com- panies train a small number.
In many Chinese factories, run on traditfönal lines, the recruitment of apprentices is haphazard. No minimum qualifications are required