The Subgroup of Skilled Talents Acquiring Plan under the Talents Development Committee recently held the second meeting in the year of 2016, chaired by Subgroup Leader Wong Chi Hong. Representatives from the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau and the Labour Affairs Bureau were invited by the Committee Secretariat to attend the meeting. During the meeting, the Secretariat updated the implementation progress of “Cooperation Framework of On-the-job Training for Government and Enterprise Employees and Promoting Skills Certification” (hereinafter referred to as “Framework”) and the Committee reviewed relevant files.

The Secretariat reported the progress of the Framework in its first quarter of implementation. The information was collected from several government bodies, with the majority from the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau and the Labour Affairs Bureau, covering a wide range of aspects including training courses, participation in certification, and the implementation of career consultation services and career planning activities.

After listening to the report and reviewing relevant files, committee members were engaged in an in-depth discussion. It was pointed out that the files reflected the current situation of professional training and certification participation in Macao. Analysis of these records helps define the future direction for promoting certification, which will serve as a reference for how talents development should be shaped. It was also suggested that training and certification records from other organisations should also be collected and reviewed, so as to amplify the effect of the Framework.

To optimise the talents development system of "training, certification, employment", committee members expressed concerns over the recognition of certificates among employers, urging to set guiding polices to drive certificate acceptance from the government and the society. It was also noted that the work should be implemented in a phased manner and will serve as guidelines in the career planning of Macao residents.

The incentive plan for talents development and certification has been on the Committee meeting agenda for several times. As data shows, there remains a gap of certification funding in the Continuing Education Development Plan (hereinafter as “PDAC”). Therefore, it was suggested that the collaboration between organisations should be further enhanced to fully leverage the resources offered by PDAC, before launching other specific incentive plans step by step.

Summarising the suggestions from the Committee, the representative from the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau concluded that the third phase of PDAC would focus on designing guiding policies on certification funding in collaboration with the Committee to encourage residents to take part in certification examinations. The Bureau will also consider collecting results data from local organisations which have applied for certification funding, as a way to enrich the Macao talent pool. The representative from the Labour Affairs Bureau pointed out that the current programmes combining training and certification are mostly equipment maintenance courses co-hosted with enterprises and building seepage repairing courses co-hosted with engineering departments. More practice trainings, such as safe operation of heavy construction machinery, will be organised in partnership with the business community.

Committee members attending this Subgroup Meeting of Skilled Talents Acquiring Plan included Wong Chi Hong, Chan Chi Fong, Tai Wong Kuai Leng, Leong Heng Kao, Ung Choi Kun, Ma Chi Ngai Frederico and Sou Chio Fai.