Employment | 155
By year-end, the trainees conducted 1 420 business transactions with gross profits of about $940,000 recorded.
Employees Retraining Scheme
The Employees Retraining Scheme (ERS) was launched in 1992 to provide retraining to eligible workers to assist them in taking on new or enhanced skills so that they can adjust to changes in the economic environment. It is administered by the Employees Retraining Board (ERB), a statutory body set up under the Employees Retraining Ordinance comprising representatives from employers, employees, persons related to vocational training and retraining or manpower planning as well as the Government. In addition to regular income from a levy collected under the labour importation schemes, the Government provided a recurrent subvention of $379 million in 2004-05.
The ERS focuses on assisting displaced workers who have experienced difficulties in seeking alternative employment. The main target group of the scheme is displaced workers aged 30 or over with no more than lower secondary education. The scheme offers a wide variety of full-time and part-time courses delivered through a network of more than 50 approved training bodies. The courses broadly fall into seven categories: courses on job search skills, job-specific skills, general skills (computer and vocational languages), courses for the elderly, courses for people with disabilities, tailor-made courses and self-employment courses. New courses with market potential and 'top up' modules are developed to equip retrainees with skills needed to enhance their employment opportunities and sustain their employability.
During the year, 57 400 full-time and 60 600 part-time retraining places were provided under the ERS. The two Retraining Resource Centres, in Jordan and Lok Fu, continued to provide self-learning facilities, job market information and other supporting services to all graduate retrainees. The objective is to reinforce the effectiveness of the ERS and foster the concept of lifelong learning.
The Integrated Scheme for Local Domestic Helpers (LDHs), an initiative launched in May 2002 to provide a one-stop service comprising job placement, referral and follow-up service for employers and graduate retrainees of domestic helper courses, has been running with success. To ensure the quality of training, the ERB set up in October 2002 a Practical Skills Training and Assessment Centre (PSTAC), which administered standardised skill assessments for retrainees of domestic helper courses in its initial operation. Those domestic helper retrainees who are able to pass the practical skill assessment will be issued a 'competency card' in recognition of their skills level achieved. Since November 2004, the PSTAC has extended its skills. assessment to include retrainees of personal care worker courses. To further promote the service of LDHs and to address the mismatch in supply and demand in the LDH market, the Special Incentive Allowance Scheme for LDHs was introduced by the Labour Department in June 2003. A sum of $60 million was earmarked to provide an allowance to qualified LDHs who are willing to work in a district different from the one in which they reside or during 'unsocial hours' (i.e., 5 pm to 9 am). Some 8 000 LDHs are expected to benefit from the scheme. As at year-end, there were some 3 700 successful applications.