The Funding Scheme for Workplace English Training subsidizes employees who need to use English in the workplace to take the necessary training in order to attain the relevant benchmark of their job type by taking any of the specified international business English examinations.

From 1 January 2005, funding will be granted to employees for taking an in-house tailor-made English training course commissioned by their company and for a specified international business English examination.

 

Employees will be subsidized for no more than one in-house tailor-made English training course and two examinations for the attainment of at the most one spoken benchmark and one written benchmark. Funding will be given to meet 50% of the training cost and examination fees, subject to a maximum of $3,000 per person.

Applications must be made by the company for its employee(s). Reimbursement will be made to the company but not to individual employees.

 

Subscribing employees must fulfill ALL the following criteria at the time when their employer submits an application to the Funding Scheme:

(1) Employees must be Hong Kong residents having the right of abode or the right to land or to remain in Hong Kong without restriction, i.e. either one of the codes of “A”, “R”, “U” or “***”, should appear on their Hong Kong Identity Card;

(2) Employees must not have obtained financial assistance for the same course and/or the same examination under any other publicly funded schemes, such as the Continuing Education Fund; and

(3) Each person can only be subsidized once under the Funding Scheme for Workplace English Training. Employees who have obtained funding from the Scheme before are not eligible to apply for grants under the Scheme again.

If the employees are not Hong Kong residents, which means they do not fulfill criterion 1, they are not eligible for the grants under the Funding Scheme. But their employer is still encouraged to arrange suitable English training for them to improve their English standards.

 

Each employee can be nominated once only. If the employees have obtained funding from the Scheme before, either through individual application or company application, they are not eligible to apply for grants under the Scheme again.

 

Employees may contact OWEC at its hotline 2186 8800 to check the funding records. They may also authorize their employers to check with OWEC in writing.

Employers should review the skills in English language required by their employees for the job, and the level of proficiency in English deemed desirable by them or by making reference to the Hong Kong Workplace English Benchmarks for different job types. Then, they could discuss with the course providers to specially design a course to meet the needs of their employees.

The Funding Scheme does not provide training courses. Nevertheless, there are many in-house tailor-made training courses provided by institutions and training bodies in Hong Kong. Applicants of the Funding Scheme are required to search on their own for appropriate course providers. For purposes of easy reference, you may wish to refer to the list of Course Providers Offering In-house Tailor-made English Training available on this website.

It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list of course providers in Hong Kong, and the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) does not recommend or endorse any course provider.

Yes, but the course must provide instructor(s) to guide and assist the students during learning. Examples of such assistance may include evaluation or correction of students’ assignments, and answering of enquiries raised by the students.

 

Workplace English Campaign has specified a total of 23 widely-recognized international business English examinations for attaining HKWEB. Employers should review their own needs to select the most suitable one for their employees. For details, please refer to Hong Kong Workplace English Benchmarks and Specified International Business English Examinations and Specified International Business English Examinations and Examination Organizers.

 

Employers may decide for their employees if they should take courses and examinations for attaining both spoken and written English benchmarks. If the employees are attending single-skill training courses (i.e. either spoken or written), they are only required to take single-skill examinations. But if the courses selected comprise both written and spoken English skills training, examination(s) for the attainment of both written and spoken English benchmarks should be taken.

 

The Funding Scheme states that a particular course can only be applied by a company for funding. However, individual companies may submit multiple applications for the same course even for staff of different job types.

 

Funding will only be granted to the applicant after its employees have successfully completed the course and attained the minimum benchmarks in their respective job types. Should employees fail the examination(s) in their first attempt, they may re-sit the examinations to obtain the required benchmarks within one year after the commencement date of the training course.

 

If the written course and oral course are different modules of the same course (i.e. a single course), your company will be reimbursed for the course after your employees have completed all the modules. However, if your employees have finished the written course and your company was reimbursed already, the Funding Scheme will not accept your application for subsidy to commission an additional oral course for the same group of employees.

 

The Funding Scheme provides subsidy for the employees of the applying company to take only one course, which may, however, contain more than one level. If this is the case, OWEC will reimburse the funding only after the concerned employees have completed all the levels.

 

The Funding Scheme will still subsidize the other employees to finish the course as long as they fulfill the funding requirements, i.e. meet the course attendance rate stipulated by the course provider and attain the relevant Hong Kong Workplace English Benchmarks (“Benchmarks”).

 

Once the employee resigned, the processing of his/her application will be terminated immediately. However, you may arrange another employee to replace the resigned one to attend the course and funding will be granted as long as the employee meets the course attendance rate stipulated by the course provider and attains the relevant Benchmarks. Your company is also required to inform the Office of Workplace English Campaign (“OWEC”) in writing for such personnel changes as soon as possible.

 

Upon receipt of the applications and verification of the information provided, we will issue a written notification to the applying company that a specific amount of grant has been earmarked for the application, subject to the availability of funds on a first-come-first-served basis.

Applicants should claim reimbursement of fund upon their employees’ successful completion of the course and attainment of the minimum benchmark in their respective job type. Application for reimbursement of fund must be submitted by the company within one year from the date of commencement of the training course for which subsidies are sought. In claiming reimbursement of fees, applicants should submit Declaration Letter for Application for Reimbursement of Fund, receipts of tuition and examination fees, the result slips/certificates of the relevant examinations for the benchmarks and documentary proof of individual employees’ successful completion of the course.

 

Applicants who wish to apply for postponement of submission may send a written application to OWEC before the original deadline. Each applicant can only apply it once. OWEC will approve or disapprove the postponement application subject to reason(s) stated by the applicant.

 

The original receipts of tuition fees and photocopies of documentary proof of successful completion of the course should show the names of the students (the subscribing employees), the course dates, the name of course provider(s) and the course(s), and proof showing the students’ attainment of the relevant Hong Kong Workplace English Benchmarks.

 

Reimbursement of fund is granted only when employees of company applicant have attained the minimum benchmark(s) of their selected job type. The company applicant has to submit all the required documents to apply for reimbursement of fund within one year upon commencement of the training course for which subsidies from the Funding Scheme are sought. Under normal circumstances, reimbursement of fund will be made within ten weeks upon receipt of complete information / document required.