Dear Colleagues,

A New Initiative to strengthen
the Training and Development Programme in the Civil Service

In my first letter of 1 August, I called on colleagues to face the Civil Service Reform in a positive spirit. I am pleased to elaborate here a new initiative announced in this year's Policy Address, which is a three-year Training and Development Programme for the Civil Service.

We live in a time of rapid and unprecedented changes. It is necessary to put in place a comprehensive system of training and development programmes to support the successful implementation of our reform initiatives and the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. We also need to create an environment which encourages civil servants to seek to continuously upgrade their attributes and work to enrich their knowledge. It is only through the promotion of a culture of continuous learning and life-long self-development within the Civil Service that we can face the challenges in this knowledge-based society and meet the rising expectation of our community for quality services.

To realise the above objective, we will launch a three-year Training and Development Programme from 2001/02 to 2003/04. We have earmarked $50 million for this purpose and will seek approval from the Finance Committee within the next few months.

The programme will cover three major areas -

• Training to facilitate staff of the 59 Voluntary Retirement designated grades in redeployment and job transition. The focus will be to provide training to the vast majority of staff who choose to remain in the Civil Service and who need to be redeployed either within or across departments. We aim to provide them with the necessary skills to take on new challenges and to advance their career. Programmes to be organised include training and vocational skills, stress management and handling job transition.  

• Training to support various Civil Service Reform initiatives. Programmes to be organised include training in change management, staff communication, staff motivation and performance management. 

• Promoting a life-long learning culture in the Civil Service. The focus will be on encouraging civil servants to develop a self-learning culture and to continually upgrade themselves. Programmes to be organised include seminars to promote self-learning culture, sponsoring staff to attend recognised courses which will widen their perspective and knowledge, enriching the content of the Cyber Learning Centre of the Civil Service Training and Development Institute, and promoting wider on-line learning.  

We will work closely with departments and the Staff Sides in the coming months to map out the detailed programmes and the implementation plan.

I expect everyone of you to have the opportunity to benefit from our initiative through participation in Government-organised or self-development courses. If you have any views or suggestions, please write to CSB direct or through your departments or staff associations. 

Yours sincerely,

(Joseph W P Wong)
Secretary for the Civil Service