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(c)
whether the Government will consider formulating policies requiring employers to give priority to employing retrained workers before taking on imported labour to fill job vacancies; if so, whether there is a timetable for the formulation of such policies; if not, what are the reasons for not considering the resolution of the employment problems of local workers first?
Reply:
Mr President,
(a)
(b)
(c)
The statistics on the number of participants in each of the courses provided by the Employees' Retraining Board from 1992/93 to 1994/95 are at Annex.
We do not have statistics on retrainees who have been able to find course-related jobs after completion of their retraining programmes. However, according to the results of an independent study commissioned by the Employees Retraining Board on the success rate of retrainees in finding jobs, 70.6% of the active job-seekers who completed the full-time Job Search Skills Course have been able to find employment while the corresponding success rate of those who completed other vocational skill courses is 59.7%. The full report is being finalised and will be published when it is completed.
It is already an integral part of our policy on importation of labour that employers are required to give priority to recruiting local workers, including retrained workers to fill any job vacancies first before they are allowed to apply for imported workers to fill such places. It is in accordance with this policy that under both the General Importation of Labour Scheme and the special labour importation scheme for Airport Core Programme projects, we require employers who wish to import labour to first register their vacancies with the Local Employment Service (LES) of the Labour Department, and then furnish evidence of such efforts to the Immigration Department when applying for quota allocation.
To assist retrainees to re-join the local workforce, the LES of the Labour Department has been providing special counselling and job placement services to retrainees in all of its nine local employment centres. In the past two years, a total of eight 'job bazaars' to promote the employment opportunities for retrainees have been organised. Profiles of retrainees have also been sent regularly to employers on request.