LegCo Panel on Financial Affairs
Meeting on 2 December 1996
Manpower Planning for the Financial Services Sector
The financial services sector is one with great demand for personnel with a great variety of background and training, for example, finance, accounting, economics, business management, law and social sciences, etc. The Government is keenly aware of the need to ensure an adequate supply of qualified personnel for Hong Kongs financial services sector and has greatly expanded the tertiary education opportunities for local students in the past few years. For example, the University Grants Committee-funded institutions, namely, the City University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the University of Hong Kong, provided a total of 3,815 full-time and part-time first-year places for first-degree business and management studies programmes in the 1995/96 academic year, to ensure a sufficient supply of candidates with sound basic education for the sector.
2. As regards financial services-specific courses, the City University of Hong Kong offers a higher diploma course in banking and financial services while the Hong Kong Baptist University includes an optional course on money and banking in one of its applied economics programme. In respect of insurance, full-time diploma courses are available at the Kwun Tong Technical Institute and the Hong Kong Technical College. As for part-time courses, the Kwun Tong Technical Institute runs two part-time day release courses for in-service people. The Insurance Training Centre, which was set up by the Vocational Training Council, provides short duration part-time training courses for insurance personnel. On-the-job training is also provided by the Insurance Traineeship Scheme implemented by the Insurance Training Board since 1984.
3. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has also been identifying ways and means to assist the industry to better organise and coordinate the availability of practical industry training. Earlier this year, a meeting of interested parties was held, and following endorsement of the group to the general concepts, a consultant with experience in financial industry education was commissioned to compile a report on the way forward and that report with recommendations of different options for the SFCs consideration. A steering group is being formed and it is anticipated that the issue can be taken further in early 1997. In addition, the SFC, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK), and the Hong Kong Futures Exchange are jointly progressing an initiative to form an Industry Research Centre in premises provided as Public Interest space by the Lands Development Corporation.
4. The SEHK is currently, in collaboration with the universities and professional bodies, providing various training opportunities to its members and practitioners. For details of courses, seminars and examinations conducted in 1996 and the SEHKs future plans on training, please refer to Annexes A and B respectively.
Financial Services Branch
Government Secretariat
26 November 1996
[LP/96\1202-mp]
Last Updated on 18 August 1998
