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EDUCATION
The Management Development Centre of Hong Kong is responsible for research, development, co-ordination and promotion of management training. Its programmes and projects include work with owner-managers and entrepreneurial firms, the creation of learning materials, and activities with management teachers and trainers and business. executives.
Technicians and craftsmen in the industrial sectors and supervisory and clerical per- sonnel in the commerical sectors are effectively trained through apprenticeship schemes and traineeship schemes. To up-grade or up-date the work force, the training boards organised subsidised training courses for in-service workers in conjunction with education and training institutions. Participants in these courses were refunded about 50 per cent of the course fee by the council upon satisfactory completion of the course.
In accordance with the council's decision to introduce a voluntary trade testing and certification system, five training boards – the Automobile, Building and Civil Engineering, Electrical, Machine Shop and Metal Working, and Printing training boards – had plans to conduct trade tests for specific trades in their sectors.
Training Authorities
The Clothing Industry Training Authority and the Construction Industry Training Authority are statutory bodies set up in 1975 to establish and operate training centres for their industries. The former is financed by a training levy based on the export value of clothing and footwear items while the latter is financed by a levy based on the value of construction works exceeding $1 million. There are now two training centres for construc- tion trades with a third being built, and two centres for training in clothing and footwear manufacture.
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Apprenticeship Scheme
The Apprenticeship Ordinance provides a legal framework for the training of craftsmen and technicians. It requires an employer to enter into a contract of apprenticeship when engaging a person aged between 14 and 18 in one of the 42 designated trades specified in the ordinance, unless that person has completed an apprenticeship in the trade. The contract must be registered with the Director of Technical Education and Industrial Training. Contracts for apprentices engaged in non-designated trades or for apprentices aged over 18 engaged in designated trades may also be registered voluntarily. The apprenticeship period of the designated trades is normally three or four years. However, the period may be shortened by any period not exceeding one year if the apprentice has obtained relevant special qualification before entering into an apprenticeship.
The Apprenticeship Section of the Technical Education and Industrial Training Depart- ment is responsible for administering the ordinance. Its duties include advising and assisting employers in the training and employment of apprentices, ensuring that the training is properly carried out, helping to resolve disputes arising out of registered contracts, and co-operating with educational institutes to ensure that apprentices receive the necessary complementary technical education. Courses of instruction for apprentices, normally on a part-time day-release basis, are provided at the Hong Kong Polytechnic and the technical institutes.
To enforce the ordinance, inspectors of the Apprenticeship Section conduct inspections and visits at regular intervals to apprentices and establishments covered by the ordinance. Apprenticeship contracts registered in 1988 totalled 4 900, of which 800 were for non- designated trades. These contracts covered 4 250 craft apprentices and 650 technician