Being an international centre for business, finance and tourism, Hong
Kong has to maintain a high standard of English for its workforce
to enable it to remain as one of the most accessible places in Asia
for foreigners to do business. The Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region Government launched the Workplace English Campaign in February
2000 to raise public awareness of the importance of English and to
improve the English proficiency of the workforce.
One of the major features of the Campaign is to establish benchmarks
to reflect the standards of workplace English required in different
occupations. In order to help prepare the working population to acquire
the relevant benchmark levels, the Hong Kong Management Association
(HKMA) has launched two completely new preparatory programmes in May
and June 2000 respectively.
The Preparatory Course for Workplace English Benchmarking Examination
is jointly organized by the HKMA and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries.
It prepares the participants for the English Language Skills Assessment
(ELSA) Test; while The Preparatory Programme for TOEIC aims at facilitating
the participants` learning in speaking and writing skills in order
to achieve satisfactory scores in the Test of English for International
Communication (TOEIC).
Both programmes are targeted at learners of English and are divided
into three levels; namely Introductory for low English proficiency
job types, Intermediate for front-line personnel, and Advanced for
secretaries, executives and professionals.
The Preparatory Course for Workplace English Benchmarking Examination
will commence towards the end of May while The Preparatory Programme
for TOEIC will start in mid-June. Both courses are of three months
duration and Certificates of Attendance will be awarded to participants
with over 70% attendance rate.
Participants of both courses can apply for the Workplace English Campaign
Funding Scheme to save up to half of the course and test fees. Applications
are now open, for details of The Preparatory Course for Workplace
English Benchmarking Examination, please contact Ms Fandy Au on 2448
5111; for The Preparatory Programme for TOEIC, please call Ms Charlotte
Chow on 2774 8513. You may also visit the HKMA website at www.hkma.org.hk.
Issued by The Hong Kong Management Association on 5 May 2000.
For press enquiries, please call Ms Titania Woo on 2526 6516/7392
3505.
