Employees Retraining Board

Teaming up with more than 120 appointed training bodies, ERB endeavours to customize timely training programmes to enhance the employability of our trainees with different backgrounds. We are now offering over 800 generic skills training courses and job-specific skills training courses covering a spectrum of some 30 industries, including tourism, exhibition, logistics, property management, information technology, design, merchandising, healthcare, hotel, retail, recreation management, beauty and catering. We also offer training courses targeted at enhancing personal attributes, languages, numeracy and computer applications skills to cater for the different needs of our trainees.

Training services must be market-oriented. To fortify the recognition of our trainees by employers, we are striving hard to strengthen the elements of skills assessment and professional certification in our training programmes. We are now offering some 80 courses covering 16 industries to provide trainees with free training, assessment and certification services, including courses leading to the award of National Occupational Qualification Certificates. We have also developed a wide range of part-time courses under the Skill Upgrading Scheme Plus, with the objectives of uplifting the skills of trainees and preparing them for professional examinations. In the days to come, the ERB will keep abreast of the up-to-date developments of the employment market and formulate new training programmes in the light of changing circumstances.

To enhance public recognition of our training programmes, the ERB will improve and strengthen its quality assurance (QA) work on a continuing basis, including assisting training bodies to establish their internal QA mechanism. We have also reviewed our audit system to ensure accurate reporting of the QA performance of our training bodies.

The Manpower Development Scheme aims at enhancing the employability of our trainees. To ensure that our training programmes match the manpower and training needs of different industries, the ERB is in the process of setting up Industry Consultative Networks (ICNs) for different sectors. Industry representatives with insights of and commitment to the development of the respective industries are invited to join the ICNs. We aim at establishing some 30 ICNs by the end of 2011.

We launched the ERB Manpower Developer Award Scheme in December 2009 to acknowledge the achievements of organizations in staff training and development. The Award Scheme will be held on an annual basis. We shall strengthen our publicity and promotional work to heighten the awareness of employers of the importance of manpower training and development.

To enhance the overall quality of the placement services administered by our training bodies, the ERB has since October 2010 been implementing an Enhanced Placement Service Model by phases. Among other things, we are stepping up post-placement support services for trainees and introducing a new job retention service. To assist trainees to land on jobs and sustain in employment, the duration of the placement support period will be lengthened from 3 to 6 months.

In mid 2010, the ERB completed a review on the operation of the Resource Centres, and decided to reposition them as ERB Service Centres. Three such Centres will be set up in 2011-12 respectively in East Kowloon, West Kowloon and Tin Shui Wai. By adopting a regional approach, the Centres are expected to offer quality services geared to the needs of our service targets in the local communities.

The economy and the employment market are always full of changes and challenges. We shall monitor closely the developments of the market and the views of various stakeholders, and remain flexible and market-sensitive in offering our training programmes and services.

Mr. Stanley NG, BBS

Executive Director

Employees Retraining Board

Brief CV

Mr. Stanley Ng graduated from the Faculty of Business Administration of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1979, and joined the Labour Department of the Hong Kong Government in the same year. During his service with the Labour Department, he handled a wide variety of labour matters including industrial relations, employees' rights and benefits, employment services and occupational safety. In recent years, Mr. Ng was dedicated to developing and fostering the employment services of the Labour Department with a view to providing the necessary manpower in the light of the economic development of Hong Kong. He oversaw the implementation of the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme, the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme, the Internship Programme for University Graduates and the Employment Navigator Programme, and engineered the setting up of the recruitment centres for the catering industry and the retail industry.

Mr. Ng was conferred a Master Degree in Business Administration by the National University of Singapore in 1993. He also pursued further studies at the Tsing Hua University and the Chinese Academy of Governance. Mr. Ng was promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner in 2007, and took overall charge of employment matters. He retired from the civil service in early 2010. In October 2010, he was appointed the Executive Director of the Employees Retraining Board, with the vision to nurture a flexible, quality and resilient labour force to fuel Hong Kong's knowledge-based economy.