Home > Press Releases > 2024 > ERB welcomes the Policy Address
and advances in full force on reforming and encouraging lifelong learning of the entire workforce in 2025

The Employees Retraining Board (ERB) welcomes the initiatives outlined in the Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address delivered today (16 October 2024), following the endorsement of the recommendations of the ERB Strategic Review Report (Review Report) to reform ERB and strengthen the training of local workers, with a view to enhancing the competitiveness of the local workforce and fostering the sustainable development of the Hong Kong economy.

ERB will undertake reforms along the directions set forth in the Review Report to enhance its role and positioning, from providing employment-related training targeted at grassroots workers to devising skills-based training programmes and strategies for the entire workforce.  ERB’s reforming efforts will be implemented in two phases. Starting from early 2025, ERB will introduce a series of short-term reform measures, which include removing from the eligibility criteria the cap on education level of trainees; increasing the annual number of training places by at least 15 000 targeting at the entire workforce; strengthening collaboration with higher education institutions and leading enterprises; as well as enhancing career planning and job matching services.

The next phase of measures will include how ERB could gauge and anticipate future skill requirements, how to reposition itself and build a new branding, how its structure and staff be adjusted, and how the Employees Retraining Ordinance be amended.  ERB will work out the details and timetable and submit recommendations to the Government by the end of 2025.

The Chairman of ERB and convenor of the “Steering Committee on Strategic Review”, Mr Yu Pang-chun said, “I fully welcome the Government’s endorsement of the recommendations of ERB’s comprehensive review in the Policy Address and will spearhead the reform initiatives on behalf of the Board.  ERB will set to focus on supporting lifelong learning for people with different backgrounds and educational attainment.  In response to the expansion of service target and service scope, ERB will advance its training service and strengthen our partnership with training bodies and enterprises, while developing a skills-based training strategy and learning pathways to address the manpower needs arising from future economic and industry development, with a view to enhancing the competitiveness of the local labour force by encouraging continuous upgrading among the general public, thereby supplying a flexible, quality and adaptive pool of human resources for driving the development of Hong Kong’s knowledge-based economy and embracing the national development vision.” 

As announced in the Chief Executive’s 2023 Policy Address, ERB was invited to conduct a comprehensive review on the service scope, training strategies and operation mode of its retraining services.  ERB then set up a “Steering Committee on Strategic Review” to steer and oversee the review exercise.  As part of the process, a series of consultation sessions was conducted to solicit views and suggestions from stakeholders of diverse backgrounds, including trade associations, human resources management associations and professions, academic sector, training bodies and labour unions, etc.  A public survey was also conducted by an independent research firm to gather insights and broaden the multi-dimensional perspectives in developing the future strategic directions of ERB.  The Steering Committee submitted the ERB Strategic Review Report to the Government in August 2024, setting sights on four strategic development directions.  The relevant recommendations have been endorsed by the Government as announced in the 2024 Policy Address. 
 
As the demography and economic structure of Hong Kong have been evolving, coupled with the increasingly wide application of technologies across industries, manpower demand of employers has thus changed.  As the local workforce ages, older workers would retire progressively.  Hong Kong needs to enhance the productivity of the local manpower in order to maintain the impetus for economic development.  In view of the considerable expansion of the higher education, workers with higher educational attainment increase steadily and they also need continuous learning to acquire new skills.  During consultations of the review, there was a consensus amongst stakeholders across different sectors that ERB should strengthen its role in local training from a forward-looking perspective in providing training services to address the needs for future development.  ERB should expand its service target and service scope, promote lifelong learning for the entire workforce and enhance the competitiveness of the local labour force in different levels and sectors.  ERB will undertake reforms along the following four directions:

• Repositioning and expanding the service target:  Having regard to the prevailing and future development of Hong Kong, ERB should redefine its functions and positioning, and consider renaming the organisation to better reflect its new role.  ERB should enhance its training and employment support services, in order to encourage and assist people with different backgrounds and educational attainment in pursuing continuous learning and up-skilling. The ERB’s service target should be expanded to cover the entire local labour force, including those with higher educational attainment, while preserving its mission of training grassroots workers to maintain competitiveness of our human capital.
• Strengthening research capabilities to grasp future skills trends:  ERB should strengthen its research capabilities to apprehend the trends for prevailing and future skills demands and the manpower needs of different industries (including emerging sectors).  This will enable ERB to formulate an appropriate training framework and guide its training bodies to develop suitable courses. 
• Adopting a “skills-based” training strategy and curriculum and developing a “skills-based” learning pathway:  The training strategy and curriculum should shift towards a “skills-based” approach.  This involves incorporating more up-skilling and re-skilling elements into course planning; promoting diverse teaching methods and online learning mode; and formulating a progression framework and pathway for different types of skills training which connects to the entry requirements of relevant occupations or posts to guide in-service employees and unemployed persons to acquire new skills and upskill through training in order to continuously improve the quality of local labour force.
• Optimising the mode of operation and integrating training resource:  ERB should review the appointment mechanism of training bodies so as to engage more institutions which are capable of providing suitable courses; explore collaboration with international corporations and professional bodies to award industry-recognised qualifications and establish partnership with local tertiary institutions, large enterprises, technology companies and professionals, etc; explore to diversify the funding modes for training with a view to enhancing the overall efficacy of training resources; as well as consolidating training support facilities by setting up a comprehensive training service centre to serve as a hub for skills enhancement, continuous training and lifelong learning.

In line with the directions, ERB will introduce a series of short-term measures to optimise services starting from early 2025, which include expanding the service target, lifting the restriction on educational attainment of trainees and expanding the service target to the entire local labour force aged 15 or above; adjusting training strategies and curriculum and adopting a “skills-based” approach in providing more short-term, modular skills upgrading courses while promoting online learning; optimising the mode of operation by strengthening collaboration of ERB’s training bodies with established organisations, leading enterprises and emerging enterprises to diversify the direction for course development and exploring the adoption of a “dual-track” quality assurance mechanism to introduce more higher educational institutions and enterprises as training bodies and partners; enhancing trainers’ teaching skills and quality of courses by providing online resources for trainers to enhance their skills in teaching and course management; as well as consolidating training support facilities by establishing an integrated training service centre as a central hub for provision of skills enhancement services to the public. Further implementation details of the short-term measures will be announced in due course.

The medium-to-long-term measures concern reforms in organisational structure, operating mode, course design and contents, development of “skills-based” learning pathways, etc., which require more in-depth study and analysis for the formulation of the implementation plan and timetable.  ERB will study and formulate the relevant details to ensure effective implementation of the enhanced functions and target to submit recommendations to the Government by the end of 2025.

An executive summary of the ERB Strategic Review Report can be viewed at www.erb.org/SRreport/ExSummary/en. For viewing the review report, please visit www.erb.org/SRreport/en.