ENG-1958 — Page 71

OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION

51

survey of the need for, and the possibility of, introducing supervi- sory training in Hong Kong. The expert, Mr. D. J. Marler, visited the Colony between February and April, and as a result of recommendations made in his report, the Government established towards the end of the year a supervisory training section in the Labour Department to offer training in supervisory techniques to representatives of the Government and local industrial and com- mercial concerns in 1959.

Craft apprenticeship within the Government service is provided by the Kowloon-Canton Railway, the Public Works Department in its electrical, mechanical and waterworks branches, the Stores Department in its workshops, and by the Printing Department. Vocational training classes for coxswains and engineers are operated by the Marine Department for Government employees, and by the Fisheries Division of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Department for fishermen.

A new group of apprentices started work in September in the Public Works Department and the Kowloon-Canton Railway under the new scheme of recruitment and training which was introduced in 1955. Apprentices are selected by means of examination and interviews; they are required to sign indentures, and attendance at supplementary technical classes is compulsory; the boys are released from the workshop one whole day a week to attend classes at the Hong Kong Technical College and, in their own time, attend classes two evenings a week.

Apprenticeship training schemes are operated by H.M. Dock- yard, the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Co. of Hong Kong Ltd., the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Co. Ltd., by the public utilities, and by a number of other European and Chinese firms. Encouragement is given by these concerns to apprentices to attend technical classes, and financial help towards fees is often provided. Some large spinning and weaving mills have apprenticeship schemes for mechanics or junior engineers; in certain cases recruit- ment is by competitive examination and the mills provide classes on their own premises in both technical and general educational subjects.

The Standing Committee on Technical Education and Voca. tional Training, set up in 1954, met four times during the year.