ENG-1994 — Page 162

EMPLOYMENT

Employees Retraining Scheme

The Employees Retraining Board was set up by statute to provide skills training for local employees to cope with structural changes in the economy. It came into operation in November 1992. By the end of 1994, training had been provided to 45 000 persons under the scheme.

The board consists of a tripartite governing body comprising representatives from the government, employers and employees. Training institutions and manpower planning practitioners are also represented in the governing body. The board's policies are implemented by a full-time administrative office. Training is delivered through an expanding network of approved training bodies, with funding support for approved courses from the Employees Retraining Fund.

The fund received a capital injection of $300 million from the government. It has a regular income of about $120 million a year, which comes from a levy charged on employers employing foreign workers under the General Labour Importation Scheme at the rate of $400 per worker per month.

The Employees Retraining Scheme was initially focused on displaced manufacturing workers who had experienced difficulties in finding alternative employment. The scheme has been extended to cover housewives wishing to re-enter the job market, the elderly, the disabled and industrial accident victims. The scheme offers a wide variety of day and evening courses for local employees aged 30 and over. The courses fall into four main categories — job search skills, job specific skills, general skills and skills upgrading.

Apart from skills upgrading courses, all courses are free and retrainees receive a retraining allowance of $3,800 per month for full-time courses or $40 and $33 per session, respectively, for half-day and evening courses.

The scheme offers a free employment service for employers wishing to employ retrainees. Financial incentives, in the form of reimbursement of training expenses, are offered under the On-the-Job Training Scheme to employers employing retrainees of the age of 40 or above, or disabled retrainees, at the rate of one-third of a month's pay for the first three months.

Employing the Disabled

The Selective Placement Division of the Labour Department helps disabled persons integrate into the community through open employment. It provides a free employment counselling and placement service for the hearing impaired, sight impaired, physically disabled, mentally retarded and mentally restored persons.

The division launched a series of activities to promote the employment of the disabled. These included exhibitions; presentation of awards to outstanding employers and disabled employees; special campaigns to canvass vacancies; presentations to interested parties and publication of quarterly newsletters, pamphlets and guidebooks. With the assistance of Radio Television Hong Kong, a series of television programmes to increase the public's awareness of the working abilities of the disabled were produced.

In February, the Governor chaired the first summit meeting on the employment of disabled persons, attended by major employers' associations and groups representing the disabled in Hong Kong. Follow-up action included promotional and publicity activities to enhance the acceptance of the disabled in open employment.

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