*********************************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (December 4):
Question:
It is learnt that both the Government and members of the business sector have recently claimed that there is a shortage of manpower in the retail industry. Moreover, the Retail Trade Training Board (the Board) of the Vocational Training Council (VTC) conducts a manpower survey every two years to evaluate the manpower situation of the industry in order to understand the manpower demand and training needs. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) if the Board has conducted, in its most recent manpower survey, an analysis of the respective (i) numbers of people employed, (ii) numbers of vacancies and (iii) manpower demand (i.e. (i) plus (ii)), in respect of managers, supervisors, salespersons, part-time salespersons, clerks or technical assistants as well as staff members at other ranks, in the retail industry each year from 2013 to 2015; if it has, of the details (set out in Table 1);
(b) if the Board has evaluated the current training needs of the retail industry and the three training areas with the highest growth in the demand for training (such as management training, sales techniques, customer service, product knowledge, languages, etc.); if it has, of the details;
(c) if the Board has compiled statistics on the number of retailers which provided in-house training for their employees last year and their percentage in the total number of retailers;
(d) if the Board has conducted any survey on the general scopes, the total number of employees trained and their general ranks, the total number of training places as well as average number of training hours in respect of the in-house training currently provided by retailers; if it has, of the details;
(e) the number of training courses organised by VTC for the retail industry and the number of places offered each year from 2010 to 2012, as well as the course names, training scopes, modes of study (full-time or part-time), entry requirements, number of teaching hours, tuition fees, subsidies, total number of graduates and graduation rates (set out by year in a table of the same format as Table 2); and
(f) the total number of training courses for the retail industry organised by training providers commissioned by the Employees Retraining Board under the Qualifications Framework and the total number of training places of such courses, in each year from 2010 to 2012, as well as the names of the course providers concerned and course names, training scopes, modes of study (full-time or part-time), entry requirements, number of teaching hours, tuition fees, subsidies, total number of graduates and graduation rates of such courses (set out by year in a table of the same format as Table 2)?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung is as follows:
(a) The Vocational Training Council (VTC) conducted the latest manpower survey for the retail industry (the survey) in 2012, which aimed to reflect the manpower demand in the industry in the short-term. The Retail Trade Training Board (the Board) endorsed the survey findings after discussion and consideration. In the survey, interviews were conducted with retail establishments in order to forecast the manpower demand by various ranks for 2013. The relevant figures are provided in Table 3.
The survey did not project the manpower supply of the retail industry and it did not collect any information on the numbers of employees and vacancies in 2013. As regards the manpower demand in the retail industry for 2014 and 2015, the survey report adopted a projection approach and forecast that the overall manpower demand in the industry would be 280 928 and 289 346 respectively. The survey report did not break down the projected figures by rank.
(b) The survey report showed that in 2012 employers provided or sponsored most training places in the areas of product knowledge, customer service, and store operations. The number of training places involved were 48 602, 44 667 and 43 380 respectively. As compared with 2010 (i.e. the previous survey), the three training areas with the highest growth of training places were store operations, managerial/supervisory skills/business management and others (including occupational safety and health, first aids, customer psychology, etc.). The percentage increases were 413%, 296% and 182% respectively.
(c) Employers of retail establishments with four or more employees were interviewed in the survey about their provision or sponsorship of training for staff in 2012. The survey report projected that the total number of retail establishments with four or more employees in Hong Kong was 7 110 (according to the information of the Census and Statistics Department and the 2012 Manpower Survey Report of the Retail Trade, there were a total of 46 034 registered retail companies. Excluding the inactive companies in the Central Register of Establishments, the number of registered retail companies was 37 955) and 1 213 of them provided or sponsored training for staff, representing 17% of such establishments.
(d) The numbers of training places, training areas and ranks of employees trained as set out in the survey report are listed in Table 4.
The survey did not cover the number of employees trained and the average number of training hours.
(e) The Business Services Centre under VTC provides training courses to employees in the retail industry without setting an upper limit for the training places of retail courses. The relevant information is set out in Table 5.
In addition to the above-mentioned courses, VTC also provides retail training for students through incorporating retail-related modules in higher diploma/diploma programmes, foundation diploma/diploma in vocational education programmes and Project Yi Jin programmes.
(f) The relevant information on the training courses for the retail industry provided by the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) under the Qualifications Framework in the past three financial years (2010-11 to 2012-13) is set out in Table 6.
Ends/Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:55
NNNN
