TNAG-0434-FCO40-499-UK-interest-in-labour-and-social-affairs-of-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 78

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

The bulk of Hong Kong's skilled and semi-skilled labour is trained by industry on the shop floor. Technical education at technologist level is provided by the University of Hong Kong and to some extent by the Hong Kong Polytechnic and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Education at technician level is provided partly by the Polytechnic and to a lesser extent by the Morrison Hill Technical Institute. Craft level technical education presently rests entirely with the Morrison Hill Technical Institute. Vocational training centres operated by voluntary agencies also offer basic craft courses and prevocational courses. Besides, manage- ment courses for various grades of managerial staff are run by the Univer- sities, the Polytechnic, the Hong Kong Productivity Centre and the Hong Kong Management Association.

In pursuance of a recommendation by the now defunct Industrial Training Advisory Committee, a permanent Hong Kong Training Council was established by the government in October 1973. The principal task of the Training Council is to bring about a system of training geared to meet the needs of the industrial, commercial and service sectors of Hong Kong's economy. At its first meeting the Training Council recommended that, to assist it to achieve its objectives, the government should appoint, under the Council, five committees responsible for looking into training problems common to more than one industry and 10 industry training boards, each responsible for training problems pertaining to one of the 10 major industries. These committees and training boards, like the Hong Kong Training Council, comprised members from employers' associations, educational authorities and government departments. In some cases, representatives from workers' union and parties interested in training are also present. By March 1974, all training boards and three of the committees have been appointed.

Meanwhile, government has approved the two contributory training schemes proposed for the construction and clothing industries by the previous Industrial Training Advisory Committee. The schemes aim to provide respectively a year's basic training to trainees in key building trades and training to sewing and knitting trainee operatives. Steps are being taken to form the provisional training authorities to plan for the eventual establishment of the statutory training authorities to administer these schemes.

The government is building two further technical institutes, scheduled to be operational in 1975, and plans to build another two by 1976 and 1977. Industry too is gradually providing more and more apprentice training opportunities. Some 170 firms have, since 1970, adopted the apprentice- ship scheme proposed by the Industrial Training Division of the Labour Department.

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