XN000022-1972-11-02 — Page 21

1

21

Thursday, November 2, 1972

NEED FOR BETTER EDUCATED AND TRAINED WORKFORCE

The Hon. James M.H. Wu today called for a "better educated and

trained workforce" to meet the challenges Hong Kong now faces.

Delivering his maiden speech in the Legislative Council

this afternoon, Mr. Wu said that plans for expanding the universities and

particularly the Polytechnic are "not without justification."

However, he said, "industrial training and allied technical education

at lower level are equally important."

As Hong Kong advances into growing mechanisation and sophistication,

only a better educated and trained workforce can manage and produce the

kind of increased productivity to counteract the competition and adversities

Hong Kong faces, he added.

Mr. Wu said the technical institutes and pre-vocational schools

proposed had their definite roles to play.

But, he said, "the specific fast changing skills can only be

acquired by learning, practising and working on the shop floor."

This, promoted in the way of properly organised apprenticeship

schemes, "provides our youths with a earn-as-you-learn opportunity to acquire

a skill and the industrialists a stable and motivated manpower source.

In this connection, Mr. Wu expressed concern over the fact that

the Labour Department's Industrial Training Division was still "very much

understaffed".

/He was