ENG-1969 — Page 58

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EMPLOYMENT

Some industries have schemes for operative training although the scope and method vary widely. In the cotton spinning and weaving branches of the textile industry newly engaged workers without previous experience but with minimum qualifications serve a learnership of several months, finally becoming semi-skilled operatives. The same two branches of the industry also provide training at technician level for junior maintenance and shift en- gineers. This usually lasts two years depending on the requirements of individual mills. The garment manufacturing industry also has its schemes for the training of newly engaged operatives.

-Training centres run by certain voluntary welfare organisations as well as by certain government departments offer various forms of vocational_training, mainly for the seriously handicapped and physically disabled. These courses vary widely in standards and range from skilled trades to commercial training, domestic science, catering, and handicraft. A functional committee to co-ordinate these activities, where they have a vocational training content, was established under the Industrial Training Advisory Committee at the end of 1966.

The Hong Kong Technical College and the Morrison Hill Technical Institute are the principal government institutions pro- viding technical education at technologist, technician, craft, and pre-apprentice or pre-craft levels. The Morrison Hill Technical Institute established in 1969 concentrates on pre-apprenticeship, craft and instructor training and has taken over such courses previously being run by the Hong Kong Technical College, thus permitting the latter to concentrate on the higher levels. There are, in addition, six government secondary technical schools, three government subsidised institutions, and one private school providing technical education for boys at secondary level. Ten government subsidised and 79 private day and 72 private night schools also offer courses of a technical, vocational and commercial nature. Courses, of varying standards, are offered for aircraft mechanics, radio operators, radio technicians, typists, stenographers, book- keepers, dress-makers, painters, and motor-car drivers.

Apprenticeship systems in Hong Kong fall into either the tradi- tional sector or the modern westernised sector. The latter system, based on the British pattern of craft apprenticeship, is followed by