PRESS RELEASES: 1999-2004
WEC to offer subsidies for in-house
tailor-made English training starting 2005
The Workplace
English Campaign (WEC) steered by the Standing Committee on
Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) invites applications
from companies for grants to organise in-house tailor-made
English training programmes leading to specified international
business English examinations for their employees.
“Effective from January 1, 2005, funding
will be given under the Campaign’s Funding Scheme
for Workplace English Training to meet 50% of the employees’
English training cost and examination fees, subject to a
maximum of $3,000 per person,” a SCOLAR spokesman
said today (December 27).
The Funding Scheme was launched in 2000
with an allocation of $50 million from the Language Fund
to subsidise employees who need to use English in the workplace
to take the necessary training in order to attain the relevant
Hong Kong Workplace English Benchmarks (HKWEB) of their
job type by taking any of the international business English
examinations specified by WEC.
Following a review of the scheme conducted
in early 2004, SCOLAR announced on January 13, 2004 that
starting in 2005, the Funding Scheme would focus on supporting
the provision of in-house tailor-made English training commissioned
by employers for their employees.
“With this new focus in place and
the well-established system for individuals to apply to
the Government’s Continuing Education Fund for a maximum
subsidy of $10,000 for training in English and other work-related
skills, applications by employees or by companies on behalf
of their employees for grants to attend English training
courses offered in the market will no longer be accepted,”
the spokesman said.
“Individuals interested in applying for
grants for courses offered in the market must submit their
applications to the Office of WEC (OWEC) on or before December
31, 2004. Submissions made in person must reach OWEC by
4:00 p.m. on that day,” he stressed.
Applications for grants for in-house tailor-made
English training programmes will be accepted by OWEC starting
on January 1, 2005 (applications are subject to the availability
of funds allocated to the scheme and any future review of the scheme
by SCOLAR). Application forms and Guidelines
for Application will be available for download at the WEC
website (http://www.english.gov.hk) on the same day.
Prior to the application, applicants should
submit to OWEC a copy of the course description of the in-house
tailor-made training course, setting out how the course
is designed specially to meet the needs of the employees
of the applying company.
The Funding Scheme will subsidise each employee
for no more than one in-house tailor-made training course
and two examinations for the attainment of at the most one
spoken benchmark and one written benchmark.
To provide more alternatives in attaining
HKWEB, WEC has recently added six international English
examinations to its examination pool to make up a total
of 23. Employers are recommended to review their needs in
selecting the most appropriate examination for their employees.
More information is available on the WEC website.
For further details on the Funding Scheme,
please refer to its Guidelines for Application, the WEC
website or contact OWEC at the enquiry hotline 2186 8800.
WEC was launched by the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region Government in 2000 with the aim of
heightening public awareness of the importance of workplace
English and to raising the standard of English among the
Hong Kong workforce.
It is a Language Fund project steered by
SCOLAR, which was established in 1996 to advise the HKSAR
Government on language education issues and on the use of
the Language Fund.
Ends/Monday,
December 27, 2004
