Question :
How many resources will the Government invest in training talents for the tourism industry in 2012-13? Please list out in detail the relevant training items, number of talents to be trained under each item, training providers and the expenditures incurred by each item. Is there any policy to ensure sufficient employment opportunities for trainees after completion of their training in order to make proper use of resources? Please advise on the manpower and expenditures involved in the above policy and the monitoring of tourism training.
Asked by : Hon. TSE Wai-chun, Paul
Reply :
At present, a number of local educational and training institutions such as the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Vocational Training Council (VTC) offer publicly-funded tourism training courses, or subsidise eligible employers in the tourism industry in providing on-the-job training.
The approved intakes of the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded programmes on tourism and hotel management in the past 3 years and the coming 3 years are as follows –
* The intake for university places increased substantially in order to meet the concurrent demand for the two batches of secondary school graduates under two different curricula.
Recurrent subventions through UGC are provided mainly in the form of block grants. Institutions enjoy autonomy in the allocation of funds and are free to determine the amount of resources to be used for different levels of studies and disciplines. As such, the amount of resources involved in the programmes on tourism and hotel management is not available.
In the 2012-13 school year, there are 2 161 planned places of the VTC’s tourism-related courses with Government subvention estimated to be about $149 million.
In 2012-13, the Labour Department will continue to operate the Youth Pre-employment and Training Programme and Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme and the Employment Programme for the Middle-aged which include tourism-related training courses. As enrolment of these two employment programmes is demand-led and depends on a variety of factors including the prevailing economic and labour market conditions, we are unable to precisely estimate the expenditure to be incurred for the tourism industry, nor do we have separate breakdown of manpower resources required for implementing the programmes in the tourism industry.
In addition to the Government-funded initiatives set out above, the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) provides training courses for the tourism industry. In 2012-13, the ERB plans to allocate 1 450 training places to tourism-related courses, comprising full-time placement-tied courses and part-time courses under the “Skills Upgrading Scheme Plus”. The appointed training bodies of the ERB are required to provide placement follow-up service to the trainees who have completed the full-time courses. The ERB stipulates benchmark placement rates for its full-time courses. The placement rates for the tourism-related full-time courses have been above the required benchmark.