HK01: Construction Industry Council boosts training places — allowances up to HK$19,000 | Union: many trades need no imported workers
With private construction volume falling in recent years and unemployment running high in some construction trades, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) has launched a one-year "enhanced support and incentive training scheme". Places on the "Multi-skilling" and "Skills Enhancement" courses will each increase by 1,200 in the new academic year, with completion allowances raised to a maximum of HK$19,000, strengthening training for local workers. CIC Executive Director Cheng Ting-ning said the measures aim to attract new blood, ease the industry's ageing problem, and help currently unemployed workers move into other trades facing shortages.
The CIC currently runs "Multi-skilling" courses — training workers in an additional skill — and "Skills Enhancement" courses that train general workers into semi-skilled or skilled trades, improving their employment prospects.
Executive Director Cheng said the new term will expand "Multi-skilling" and "Skills Enhancement" places to 4,000 in total, free of charge. Semi-skilled workers completing the two course types receive graduation allowances of HK$14,000 and HK$10,000 respectively; skilled workers receive HK$19,000. If demand is strong, the council is "well prepared to increase places at any time".
Chow Sze-kit, president of the Construction Industry Workers General Union, said falling private works plus the government's push for MiC (modular integrated construction) and smart machinery on sites have reduced labour demand. He hopes local workers will take up training to boost employment: "say you finish your stage of work and there's nothing next — you move on to the next process".
He added that labour importation is only a supplementary, not long-term, measure, and hopes the government will dynamically assess import demand from real-time data. "Many construction trades currently don't need imported workers — training and publicity to attract entrants can solve it. But some trades may genuinely need them; the problem is no new projects, leaving workers at risk… By end-2025 or 2026, other trades will see layoffs too, so we need precision importing."
Cheng Kai-mau, a trainee on the Construction Academy's collaborative training scheme, previously worked on suspended-ceiling partitioning and joined via his employer's referral. The scheme, he said, earned him a licence and widened his promotion prospects.
Original article: https://www.hk01.com/社會新聞/60286273/建造業議會增培訓額-最高有-1-9萬津貼-工會-好多工種毋須外勞