"2001 proved to be a tough year for Hong Kong with many companies facing closures, redundancies and cut-backs. It has been a testing year for both management and staff and a time when those companies who have trained their staff well and looked after them have probably faced fewer business problems and staff difficulties than their competitors who didn`t, according to Mr Graham Higgins, Chairman of the Human Resources Development Management Committee of The Hong Kong Management Association.

"Under this dynamic business environment, achieving competitive advantage by making effective use of the talents of staff is a critical task for any business success. Thus, training has become both more central and problematic to the organizations than ever before. We must ensure we get the very best out of our relatively expensive workforce by continuing to invest in them, train them and motivate them." said Mr Higgins.

The Award for Excellence in Training has been instituted twelve years ago by the Human Resources Development Management Committee of the Association. It is the only Award of its kind in the Territory giving public recognition of training achievements to companies and human resource professionals.

The deadline for entries this year is Friday, 22 February.

Selection of winners is based on a simple but comprehensive judging process which includes shortlisting interview, written submission and final presentation seminar.

At the shortlisting interview, all participating companies will give a simple verbal presentation (either in English or Cantonese) of the training they have given, covering the content and the implementation only, to a Board of Examiners comprising members of the Human Resources Development Management Committee and consultants from the Association.

Shortlisted entries will be invited to submit a five-page summary of their training programmes. The best six finalists will be selected and presented their training programmes at the final presentation seminar, which is a half-day experience sharing seminar, before the Panel of Adjudicators.


The top three programmes will be awarded the Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes, while the remaining three will receive the Certificates of Merit. In addition, two special Awards, Panda-Recruit Most Innovative Award and The Best Presentation Award will be granted.

All winners will be presented with trophies or certificates at the annual Susan Yuen Memorial Lecture and Dinner, which is one of Association`s most important
events in its annual calendar.

In fact, participating in the Award has been beneficial to both the companies and the HRD professionals and trainers. In addition to an excellent opportunity for publicity for the winning companies, the Award offers HRD professionals and trainers the opportunity to have their efforts better recognized by their organizations, peer professionals and the community. Moreover, the Award provides additional motivation to HRD and training professionals to extend their efforts.

The Award is intended to cover any training programme that is initiated and delivered by a company to its Hong Kong staff.

Eligible Training could take several forms as follows:

1.	Strategic: where a comprehensive and organization-wide programme has been implemented to support a significant strategic change initiative(s), that Training and Development has played a major part in the programme to instill new mindset, skills and/or knowledge in staff.
2.	Specific skills training: whereby a new skill is being taught to a particular group of staff.
3.	New delivery method: The training may be a well established subject that has been upgraded to modernize the delivery method. It may alternatively be a new method of delivering old training programmes.
4.	Induction or basic skills training: whereby formal training is given, in classrooms or by electronic delivery, in the skills that new staff require in order to perform their basic job.
5.	Refresher training: training programmes that are intended to revitalize a particular skill or knowledge to ensure the desired standards are still being achieved.

To enable companies have a better understanding of the Award, a Briefing Session will be arranged as follows:

Date:	Friday, 1 February 2002
Time:	9:00 am
Venue:	The Hong Kong Management Association 14/F Fairmont House 8 Cotton Tree Drive Central, HONG KONG
Fee:	Free

For registration, please contact Ms Gigi Lau on 2826 0527.

The Award this year is proudly sponsored by the following companies:

Media Sponsor:	Panda-Recruit Group
Sponsors :	Hang Yick Properties Management Limited The Hong Kong Jockey Club Hong Yip Service Company Ltd

For details, please contact Ms Titania Woo (Tel: 2826 0535/ 2526 6516 /
email: titaniawoo@hkma.org.hk) or Ms Gigi Lau (Tel: 2826 0527/ 2526 6516 / email:gigilau@hkma.org.hk) or by fax on 2868 4387. You may also visit our website of the Association: www.hkma.org.hk


Issued by The Hong Kong Management Association on 11 January 2002

For press enquiries, please contact Ms Titania Woo on 2826 0535/7383 5116 or Ms Gigi Lau on 2826 0527 or Ms Sunnie Ma on 2826 0532.