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ERB Training and Career Expo 2008

cum the 1st Manpower Development Scheme Award Presentation Ceremony

The Employees Retraining Board (ERB) Training and Career Expo Opening Ceremony cum the 1st Manpower Development Scheme Award Presentation has been held on 5th December 2008 at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre. With more than 300 guests from various sectors joined the bustling event, sharing the joyous moment of the awardees and exhibiting support to job seekers. The opening ceremony was officiated by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr. Matthew Cheung, GBS, JP, the Permanent Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr. Paul Tang, JP, the Chairman of ERB Mr. Michael Tien, BBS, JP and the Vice Chairman of ERB Dr. Ng Tat-lun, BBS, JP.

The Chairman of ERB, Mr. Michael Tien, said in his speech that the event had a dual significance. It was the first time for ERB to host a major expo to promote its one-stop training and employment service and its latest developments, whereas the 1st Manpower Development Scheme Award was to recognize ERB’s working partners for their contributions and to praise outstanding graduate trainees for their endeavour to live a positive life through training.

The Expo exhibited the brand-new series of ERB courses. There are about 300 different courses open for enrollment, within which 120 placement-tied courses are newly-added while 40 are new half-day or evening courses. Regarding the part for career, there were more than 50 employers providing over 3,000 job vacancies for on-site recruitment.

Mr Michael Tien furthered that confronting to the declining economy caused by the recent Financial Tsunami, ERB dedicated to bring its function into full play. ERB had been adjusting its services according to the market needs. Recently, it had also relaxed the admission criteria that part-time courses were opened to the employed while at the same time allowed training bodies to offer job-specific skills courses in part-time mode. ERB would also focus on developing new services, including launching part-time/evening modular courses on different industries to help the employed to equip themselves for future challenges.

As the new ERB introducing the “Manpower Development Scheme”, the pervious “Employers Gold Star Award” and “Outstanding Retrainees Award” have been renamed as “ERB Manpower Development Scheme Award”. The awards are for commending employers, trainees, strategic partners and training bodies, who had contributed to the success of ERB services.
For the 1st “Manpower Development Scheme Award”, there were 72 employer organisations being nominated, within which 2 organizations won the “ERB Excellence Award for Employers”, 12 obtained “ERB Outstanding Award for Employers”, and 14 entitled “ERB Merit Award for Employers”. All winning organizations had actively participated in the Manpower Development Scheme by employing ERB trainees, promoting ERB services to the public, caring for their staff and providing career ladders for trainees and so on.

To enhance public recognition, ERB opened the selection of trainees’ awards to the public by launching a polling campaign this year. 11 trainees were awarded “ERB Outstanding Trainees Award” while another 11 won “ERB Merit Award for Trainees”. Awardees include revived single mother, middle-aged private personal care attendant who determined to run his own elderly home. The Award not only demonstrated recognition of the trainees’ performance by their employers, it also honoured their positive attitude towards life and their courage in overcoming difficulties.

“ERB Strategic Partners Award” was presented to recognize organizations’ support to ERB’s new development in specific aspects. Meanwhile, to acknowledge training bodies with the most graduate headcounts and the most outstanding placement services in 2007-08, ERB set up “ERB Training Achievement Award” and “ERB Placement Service Award” this year. The two awards respectively indicate the awardees’ different service targets in general stream and specific group (i.e. ethnic minorities, disabled persons, industrial accident rehabilitants and rehabilitated offenders, etc).

Please refer to Appendix I for the list of the winners. Awardees’ information can also be found in the program booklet of “ERB Training and Career Expo 2008 cum the 1st Manpower Development Scheme Award Presentation Ceremony”. The content of the booklet could be obtained through the ERB website http://www.erb.org/Corp/home/expo_booklet/en.