TNAG-0437-FCO40-502-Visits-of-UK-officials-to-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 28

- 5 -

the Full Course, or he may take one Part, or a Combination of Parts instead of the Full Course. Certificates are awarded for each Part and a Full Certificate awarded to students who pass the examination in all five Parts and obtain a satisfactory project report. It was interesting to note in the pamphlet for this course that "currently with the assistance of Mr. Jones the Centre has approached N.E.B.S.S. for full recognition of this course".

Hong Kong United Dockyard Apprentice Training Centre

26. The Centre which is situated in the Kowloon Docks was visited in the afternoon of Friday, 8th February. The Hong Kong United Dockyard has been formed by the amalgamation of the Taikoo Dockyard in Hong Kong and the Whampoa Dockyard in Kowloon. All apprentice training is now carried out in Kowloon. Incidentally, the amalgamation of the two Dockyard Apprentice Schools has permitted the old Apprentice School at Taikoo being made available to the Hong Kong Polytechnic.

27. The organisation of the Training Centre which has some 500 apprentices was under the control of Mr. G. Todkill, the Dockyard's Production Services Manager, and seemed to be run somewhat on military lines. Apprentices did physical training, paraded and were marched to and from work. They attended Outward Bound courses and I was told that they had a first-class boxing team. Mr. Todkill is an enthusiast for boxing! I was most impressed with the whole organisation which had an air of efficiency with everyone seeming to know exactly what he was doing.

28. The training programme for the Centre is based on the U.K. training schemes of the Engineering Industry Training Board and the Shipbuilding Industry Training Board for which the appropriate further education component would normally be the City and Guilds "200 series" subjects. Several apprentices were attending the Morrison Hill Technical Institute for the Chinese Further Education course offered there. Mr. Todkill was not entirely satisfied with the Further Education course and he had been unsuccessful in discussions with the Department of Education and the Principal of the Morrison Hill Technical Institute in getting changes made. I showed him copies of our 820 scheme and coursework schedules and promised to send him copies. He, in turn, will send City and Guilds copies of his own training programme which we may find useful as a reference.

Hong Kong Commercial Television

29. In the afternoon of 9th February in company with Mr. Lo King-Man and Mr. Steven Ho of the Polytechnic, I had a meeting with Mr. George Ho who owns the Hong Kong Commercial Television Company. Mr. Ho has a scheme for putting an educational/training programme on television together with tutorials after which he hopes that students will be able to take City and Guilds examinations. I drew attention to the practical problem of producing tradesmen without recourse to workshop facilities. This he readily understood but asked for advice on what he could do from the television medium to help many young Hong Kong citizens who had been unable to attend vocational schools or training establishments. I suggested that if a City and Guilds certificate was important to his scheme, then he should tackle those subjects where theoretical or diagnostic knowledge was important but where practical skill could be obtained on a on-the-job basis. I suggested that in view of the importance attached to electrics/electronics in Hong Kong, that perhaps he should tackle subject 173 Radio Servicing Theory and possibly the first year of subject 270 Telecommunication Technicians.