Impact of Economic Restructuring on Human Resources

Panelist presentations

Mr Matthew Cheung.

Mr Cheung noted that the Government's policy was to ensure that the labour force has the skills and expertise to meet market demands in an economy that has been under rapid transformation. To do this, the Government attached great importance to enhance the transferability of the workforce in terms of people's interpersonal skills and proficiency in English, Cantonese as well as Putonghua. Recognizing that students of today are the workforces of tomorrow, the Chief Executive has announced an ambitious programme to enhance competitiveness in schools, which includes a five-year Information Technology education strategy.

The Government has adopted a two-pronged approach in training and re-training through the public-funded Vocational Training Council and the Employees Retraining Board. The latter has widened its scope to put more emphasis on the service sector, in response to the economic restructuring.

Dr William Chan.

Dr Chan suggested that our education system should be flexible enough to meet rapid changes. He surmised that the government had monopolized the education system in Hong Kong, and suggested that the Government should confine its role to financing and monitoring of the school system and loosen its monopolistic grip on education. Instead of funding the schools, he proposed, the administration should subsidize parents directly so as to ensure that teachers and schools remain competitive and innovative.

He also noted that displaced low skill workers and housewives dropping out of the labour market for the care of their children might find it difficult to re-enter the workforce. The authorities, however, should not regard re-training as a form of welfare service provided on humanitarian grounds. Re-training should not be tied to financial rewards. He insisted that participants' financial difficulties should be dealt with through proper social welfare channels, rather than training or re-training programmes. The Employees Retraining Board should focus on short, part-time courses to brush up job seekers' communication and occupational skills, so that participants could explore new career opportunities without withdrawing from their current jobs.

Mr Eddie Ng.

Mr Ng pointed out that a 1996 survey of 230 companies carried out by the Human Resources Management Institute had proven staff training to be a priority business concern. Seventy percent of the respondents indicated that their companies had formulated policies on training. The main areas for training are improving productivity, expanding range of skills, coping with technological innovations and responding to product changes. The focus has shifted from product and procedure-related “hard” issues to “soft” skills preparing employees for a new mindset. EQ-oriented social stability and emotional maturity programmes have become increasingly popular.

Mr Ng observed that the concept of vocational skills training should be replaced by one of life-long learning so as to highlight the need for individuals to take the initiative in bettering themselves.

Discussion and comments

The issues raised during the discussion session can be summarised as follows.

Equal access to training.

Some participants were concerned about the problem of inadequate training facilities to upgrade those already in employment. Certain privileged sectors of the community, such as employees of multinationals, the Government and major local companies, enjoy adequate access to training. Yet, this is not the case for the majority of the remaining workforce. It was proposed that a direct Training Tax Refund, or other forms of direct subsidy to those who do not pay Personal Income Tax, be handed out to the individuals. Government officials, however, noted that tax exemptions were already in place for taxpayers attending training and education programmes. It was also noted that close to ten percent of the local working population were currently engaged in learning of one form or another.

Benchmarking of standards.

The issue of an absence of local cooperation in benchmarking standards of services in Hong Kong was raised. It was noted that unlike the United States, Hong Kong did not have concerted efforts in sharing such useful data. Information on Hong Kong service standards now available was described as “highly fragmented” It was recommended that such a database be compiled for easy reference.

Cultivating a service culture.

Customer-oriented services are delivered directly to the consumers as the first and the last clients. The employee qualities in terms of courtesy, language skills, pride and dedication will be reflected in the standard of services provided. They are critical to the competitiveness of these services sectors. It was, therefore, suggested that a positive service culture should be cultivated for these sectors and incorporated into any human resource development strategy for Hong Kong. It was also proposed that research be conducted to ascertain future demographic shifts by taking into account factors such as immigration from mainland China. It should also be ascertained whether it is desirable to incorporate customer services into the formal curriculum.

Cooperation between academia and businesses.

The Government should encourage universities and the business sector to work more closely together. Pumping money into the development of “hardware” such as the Science Park alone is regarded as inadequate. It is suggested that the University Grants Committee should allocate more resources to boost research pertinent to the implications of the restructuring of Hong Kong's economy.

Equal opportunities regulations.

An academic branded the Equal Opportunities Commission's position on recruitment policies as being uncalled for. He argued that the global competitive environment had already made it less viable for companies to pursue discriminatory hiring policies. He advised that the Commission should not stand in the way, as the companies themselves would know how best to strike a proper balance between equal opportunities and practical needs.

Competition policy.

There were complaints about public-funded institutes competing with the private sector for training and other related business opportunities. The Vocational Training Council and the Hong Kong Productivity Council, for example, have been competing with private sector information technology service providers for Government contracts and training budgets from private sector companies, in contradiction to the official stated policy of offering support to the service industry. A clarification of their roles and a clear competition policy for such bodies were considered desirable.

In the discussion a number of points were focused specifically on education and language issues, as follows.

Difficulty in re-joining local schools.

A business sector participant noted that many Hong Kong people had worked abroad. These people might find it difficult for their children to re-enter local Cantonese schools. The international schools, on the other hand, are expensive. The issue had become an inhibitor for those who might want to come back to Hong Kong.

Emphasis on Continual Education.

A participant noted that more attention should be directed at continual education. He pointed out that despite its importance, the continual education sector is not even represented in the Education Commission.

Post-experience training.

The concept of post-experience training for those who have already attained considerable experience in their respective trades was floated. Normal MBA programmes could not meet such demands, and it was recommended that post-experience schools be established to ensure that there are programmes tailored to this particular sector of the workforce.

Language concerns: Medium of instruction.

Several participants objected to the Government's policy to impose restrictions on the number of schools that can use English as their medium of instruction. They contended that teachers, parents and students were in the best position to choose for themselves. Dr Ho Lok Sang held that too much control on the schools would stifle their readiness to respond to market demands. But a Government official rejected the proposition by stating that the Education Department had indeed encouraged schools to innovate. The schools, for instance, have welcomed the Target Oriented Curriculum. It was also noted that the language policy was based on solid research findings. Dr William Chan, however, remained unconvinced of the research evidence that teaching in the mother tongue must be beneficial, pointing to the Moroccan experience as an example. A business sector participant was worried about convergence problems as Cantonese is used at schools while the universities teach primarily in English.

Multi-lingual skills.

Several business participants concurred that Hong Kong, as an international business hub, needed more multi-lingual talents. Unlike in cities such as Shanghai, foreign language learning facilities are not easily available in Hong Kong. The idea of a foreign language institute to train up more talents fluent in foreign languages, such as Russian, Spanish, Italian and French, was thus put forward. Against this, it was pointed out that English had already been accepted as the working language at international meetings, and that it might be more cost-effective for Hong Kong to hire such language talents rather than training them locally.