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"In the review, the Government has looked at the management structure of the ERB, the current mode of operation of the ERS and the various types of retraining courses with a view to finding ways and means to improve the effectiveness of ERS in meeting the employers' needs and retraining needs of local workers. Upon completion of this review, we reckon that the ERS does serve to help workers adjust to changes in the labour market. However, there is considerable scope for improvement," Mr Wong said.
Explaining the proposal to focus the ERS primarily on the unemployed including new immigrants, who are aged 30 or above and have attained lower secondary education or below, Mr Wong said that since this group is at the lower end of the social and educational spectrum, "they constitute the 'hard-core' of the unemployed who are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of any structural change in the economy and who also stand the highest chance of being displaced from the labour market."
"However, the ERB could apply both the age and the educational attainment criteria flexibly in individual cases, in particular for new immigrants, given their different educational and vocational backgrounds," he added.
Mr Wong said that the new retraining programme would take the form of a specially-designed and structured package of job-oriented intensive courses, aimed at helping the retrainees to secure and hold down their jobs.
"In order to focus the ERS on training the hard core' of the unemployed including new immigrants, the Government has proposed that all the skills upgrading courses for the employed persons, and the ancillary retraining courses for the elderly and the disabled now being offered under the ERS, should in future be provided by the VTC instead. In this process, we will also ensure that the retraining needs of the needy group, in particular the elderly and the disabled will not be adversely affected.
"Given its remit, experience and facilities, the VTC should be well placed and equipped to fulfil this role. With this clear demarcation of training responsibilities and target clienteles, the ERB and the VTC will be able to develop their individual strengths, thus avoiding duplication.
"This proposal will enable the ERB to re-deploy some 40 per cent of its current annual expenditure (around $110 million in 1995-96) on skills upgrading to the development of better-quality retraining programme for the unemployed and for training more people, including new immigrants," Mr Wong said.