The coverage of the Continuing Education Fund (CEF) has been extended to include additional sectors and skill domains.

　　A spokesman for the Education and Manpower Bureau said today (January 18), "The Government has decided to introduce a new sector 'Creative Industries' under the CEF to cover courses in advertising, digital entertainment, films, television and video. The existing 'China Business' sector has also been expanded and renamed as 'Business Services' to include business management training under the Fund. Courses in French, German and Japanese are also included in the skill domain 'Language'."

　　"The decision was made after we have carefully considered various suggestions from the public, course providers and legislators and have sought advice from prominent academics and business figures."

　　The spokesman said, "In making the decision, we adhered to the principle that the Fund should be used to subsidise training which would be conducive to the economic development of Hong Kong and as such, only courses from economic sectors with high growth potential and manpower requirement or skill domains where our workforce may be deficient are to be covered under the CEF."

　　"We have studied the survey results of 'Manpower Projection 2007' and two other related surveys, namely 'Household Survey on Employment Concerns and Training Needs' and 'Establishment Survey on Manpower Training and Job Skill Requirements' and have come to the conclusion that the proposed coverage of the CEF should have addressed the main economic sectors with high growth potential and manpower requirement or skill domains where our workforce may be deficient," he said.

　　Course providers will be provided with the relevant information on these additional sectors/domains for their course design and vetting purposes within this month. It is expected that courses under the new sectors/domains will be available for application by the second quarter of 2004.

　　" We shall continue to monitor the utilisation of the Fund and review the need for opening up more sectors or domains from time to time having regard to the training requirement of our workforce," said the spokesman.

Ends/Sunday, January 18, 2004

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