Home > Press Releases > 2022 > Upgrading Together and Forging Ahead Beyond 30

The Employees Retraining Board (ERB) is hitting a pivotal milestone while entering its 30th anniversary in 2022-23.  Over the past three decades, ERB has upheld the “market-driven and employment-oriented” work principle to offer timely training courses and services for Hong Kong people, supporting them in pursuing upgrading and career development through training, while at the same time nurturing talents for all industries and supporting sustainable development of the economy of Hong Kong.  Taking the opportunity to commemorate its 30th Anniversary, ERB launches the ERB 30 Campaign, covering a variety of promotional programmes and major activities, to connect with members of the public and enhance their understanding and participation in ERB courses and services.

As its Executive Director Byron Ng pointed out, ERB’s development tied in with the societal changes of Hong Kong for the past 30 years.  Since its establishment in 1992-93 when the city underwent economic restructuring from a manufacturing economy to a service-oriented one, then stormed through Asian financial crisis, SARS outbreak and global financial tsunami, until the COVID-19 pandemic in recent couple of years, all impacting the economy and society of Hong Kong in various degrees.  Facing each of these crises, ERB has always been committed to its role and strived to launch suitable measures and training services along with the times and needs of the society.  These include positioning ERB in offering placement-tied training in the early days, extending its service targets to cover the unemployed and serving employees aged 15 or above with an educational attainment at sub-degree level or below in 2007-08, and introducing the concept of continuous upgrading, which have laid firm foundation for the development of ERB courses and services in the long run. 

Byron Ng also said that in order to support those who are affected by the pandemic and economic downturn to upgrade their skills for self-enhancement, ERB has launched five phases of the Love Upgrading Special Scheme since October 2019, introducing an array of special arrangements including waiving restriction on educational attainment of trainees, offering courses free of charge, disbursing special allowance, as well as temporarily lowering the attendance rate requirement for disbursing allowance, etc., with a view to supporting them to be well prepared for re-employment through training.

The ERB 30 Campaign comprises diversified programmes including the “ERB 30 Thematic Film” which features Hong Kong’s cityscape as the backdrop and showcases ERB walking together with Hong Kong people in the past 30 years to support them for learning and upgrading, and the video series of “Together in this Year．ERB Trainee Stories”, etc.  These videos and other ERB 30 programmes and events are promulgated in the ERB 30 dedicated website.

Looking forward beyond its history of 30 years, ERB will continue to uphold its commitment, be versatile and innovative, advance with times while being people-oriented, and develop courses and services actively, with a view to supporting members of the public in riding out challenges in the new era and growing through their training pathways.