EDUCATION
insurance, jewellery, machine shop and metalworking, plastics, precision tooling, printing, shipping, textile and welding industries. Two new training centres were set up, one for the wholesale/retail and import/export trades, and the other for the design of application specific integrated circuits. Altogether, the centres provide off-the-job basic or upgrading training for over 31000 trainees a year on a full-time or part-time basis, at skill levels ranging from the operative to the technologist.
The Engineering Graduate Training Scheme aims at bringing about adequate practical training opportunities for engineering graduates and engineering students in sandwich courses to enable them to complete their overall training as engineers and satisfy the training requirements of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers as well as other rec- ognised institutions for professional status. In 1990, 60 engineering firms took part in the scheme and provided 460 training places.
The council's Management Development Centre is responsible for research, develop- ment, collaboration 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, trainers and business executives. Technicians and craftsmen in the industrial sectors and supervisory and clerical personnel in the commercial sectors are effectively trained through apprenticeship schemes and traineeship schemes. To upgrade or update the workforce, the council's training boards organised subsidised training courses for in-service works in conjunction with education and training institutions.
Four training boards: automobile, electrical, machine shop and metal working, and printing continued to offer a voluntary trade test scheme for specific trades in these sectors. In 1990, two other training boards, building and civil engineering, and plastics, started to introduce the voluntary trade test scheme. Tests were offered for trades including vehicle mechanic, electrician, mechanical fitter, typesetter, bricklayer, and mould and die maker. Serving workers in these trades were invited to apply for tests and the response was good, particularly in the vehicle mechanic and electrician trades.
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 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 three training centres for construction trades and two for training in clothing and footwear manufacture.
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 appren- ticeship period of the designated trades is normally three or four years. However, the
149