PRESS RELEASES: 1999-2004

Business and schools partnership programme

To foster a closer relation between the business and school sectors for the learning of English in the workplace, the Government and the Business Coalition on Education are jointly running a partnership programme under the Workplace English Campaign.

The Programme will provide students with first-hand exposure to authentic workplace English, and about 170 schools and 100 business firms have signed up for this Business and Schools Partnership Programme. Participating business covers a wide range of industries including banks, hotels, trading firms and retailers.

"We are delighted to see the encouraging response from both the business sector and school," said Dr Eden Woon, Director of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and a representative of the Business Coalition on Education on this Programme.

There are different partnership schemes under the programme such as exchange visits and workplace attachments. They are expected to start shortly. A briefing session was organised today (January 22) for the participating schools and businesses on programme logistics.

"The Business and School Partnership Programme is one of the core components of the Workplace English Campaign, and we are pleased to see the business sector taking an active role in the language education for our future workforce," said Mr Michael Tien, Chairman of the Steering Campaign on the Workplace English Campaign.

The Workplace English Campaign is a major government initiative to heighten public awareness of the importance of English, and to raise the standard of workplace English. The Campaign will commence in February 2000.

Further information about the Campaign can be obtained from the website of the Education and Manpower Bureau at http://www.info.gov.hk/emb/eng/new/index.html.

End/Saturday, January 22, 2000