until as late as possible, and by leaving as much of this to industry as is reasonable and possible. From the trainees point of view, and in order to facilitate the maximum development of the Colony's human resources, courses of training should be progressive allowing the abler student access to more advanced work. Courses too should be flexible so that they can readily cater for changes in industry's needs or in the educational system.
2.3. The ability of the industries in Hong Kong to compete and hold their own in world markets does not only depend upon application and sustained effort on the part of members of the work force but on other human qualities such as resourcefulness, the ability to improvise and to invent or innovate. Not only must industry have a proportion of the ablest young people but they must have something of these qualities and these can be fostered and developed through the medium of education and training. This will call for a very different outlook both within education itself and on the part of the parent. Government will need to take the lead in this matter using every means at its disposal to inculcate a wider interest in things technological and their import to the country. Changes in school curricula, exhibitions, radio, television, newspapers, adult education all must be pressed into service, and industry for its part must see that its pay and conditions are attractive compared with other professions and occupations and offer an adequate career at the various levels. Minimum trade standards are necessary too and incentives to higher
productivity.
2.4.
scene.
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So much for the qualitative aspects of the manpower development Attention was next turned to the quantitative side of the problem. Technically educated people are required at a variety of levels in the various sectors of the economy of a country, and the numbers at each level are normally found to decrease as one ascends the hierarchy, leading to a pyramidal type of structure. The proportions at the various levels differ from one group of industries to another so that for example, the profile, as it is called, of a chemical engineering group may well approximate to a very narrowly based pyramid, the mumbers of high level or professionally qualified manpower, i.e., chemists, physicists, engineers, managers etc. being substantially larger than they would be say in the agricultural sector, where the base of the pyramid will be much broader. A profile often used for 'rule of thumb' manpower calculations to cover the whole economy of a country is that exemplified by the ratios 1:5:25 i.e., one high level to five intermediate (or technician) level to 25 skilled level persons. (See Appendix 1 for definitions.) Obviously such an overall profile could only be obtained by taking a weighted average of the profiles for each sector and by the very nature of the problem will be an approximation. It will moreover differ according to the make-up of the economy, the 1:5:25 representing a hypothetical, average, industrialised community.
2.5. For the purposes of development planning there will be a profile representing the existing stock of manpower and one or more representing the anticipated or forecast profiles three, five or ten years ahead which would match the proposed development of the economy. The difference between the 'stock' or 'base' profile and the 'forecast' profile indicates the order and shape of the manpower need. If assumptions are made regarding wastage and regarding the percentages of individuals at the various levels likely to achieve their positions through promotion rather than training, then we have an indication of the shape and size of the overall training need. This in fact will determine the approximate increase in size of the technical educational training arrangements needed at the different levels, and, provided capital and recurrent costs per place at each level are known, the order of the financial commitments likely to be required can be estimated. Still yet other factors can be
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