ENG-2010 — Page 173

Employment | 127

In addition to providing placement support service to the graduates of its full- time courses, to increase employment opportunities, the ERB administers the 'Smart Living Scheme' which provides a platform for free referral of its graduates in domestic help, post-natal care, infant and child care, elderly care, escort for out- patients, care for discharged and hospital patients, as well as healthcare massage.

The ERB also places strong emphasis on training of generic skills to enhance the employability of Hong Kong's workforce. Training in this area covers basic workplace languages, numeracy, IT applications and job search skills.

The ERB operates two service centres in Kowloon East and Kowloon West to provide training and employment support services to its clients.

The ERB has continued to strengthen its quality assurance mechanism to ensure its training courses meet the requirements of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications for the purpose of recognition under the Qualifications Framework.

The Government stopped providing recurrent subvention to the ERB in 2008. Since then, its main income has come from the 'Employees Retraining Levy', collected from employers of imported workers including foreign domestic helpers. The levy goes to the Employees Retraining Fund (ERF), which is administered by the ERB. During the five-year suspension of the levy effective from August 1, 2008, the ERB had relied mainly on the balance of the ERF to support its operations.

Skills Upgrading Scheme

A $400 million Skills Upgrading Scheme (SUS) provides training for in-service workers to help them adapt to changing economic needs. Since 2001, over 260 000 training places have been provided under the SUS, benefiting workers from 26 industries.

In July 2009, the ERB launched a 'Skills Upgrading Scheme Plus' (SUS Plus) to provide part-time skills training courses to help in-service employees upgrade their trade-specific skills, or to acquire new job skills in other industries if they wish to change jobs. As the funding for the SUS is expected to be exhausted by around mid-2011, the ERB had been taking over the SUS courses in stages since December 2009. In 2010, the ERB offered about 200 courses covering 17 industries under a plan called 'SUS Plus'. The migration of SUS courses to the ERB's SUS Plus is expected to be completed in mid-2011.

Continuing Education Fund

A $5 billion Continuing Education Fund (CEF) was launched in June 2002 to subsidise adults wishing to pursue continuing education. Approved courses in specific sectors and those designed in accordance with the specifications of competency standards and registered under the Qualifications Register are covered by CEF.

On completion of their courses under the CEF, eligible applicants are reimbursed 80 per cent of the fees they paid, which must not exceed $10,000 per person.