Award program launched to train talented people

Lei Lai Keng (left) and Kong Ngai

The Talents Development Committee (CDT), the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) and the Macao Foundation jointly launched a program to train residents in linguistics and to encourage them to take credential exams, the CDT announced yesterday in a press conference.

The first phase of the program will run from November 1 of 2017, with the award period ending June 30 of 2018. This involves the launching of the pilot program for the assessment of language ability.

Any Macau resident who, during the award period, takes any of the exams mentioned below and receives a high grade might be awarded MOP1,000.

The exams include Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi (PSC), Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK), CAPLE, IELTS General Training Test, and TOEIC Listening & Reading Test. Residents can receive prizes if they reach Level II-B or higher, Level IV or higher, DIPLE or higher, 7.0 or higher, and 750 or higher, respectively. During the award period, each person can only be awarded once for each category.

Any Macau resident aged above 15 years old on the day of their application can apply for the exams.

According to CDT, the program is intended to motivate residents to participate in these credential exams and to encourage them to reach a specific level in a variety of techniques and domains. 

Currently, the awards are only related to linguistic abilities. Later, CDT will consider expanding this award program to other accreditations across different professional areas in order to improve the individual competences and professional skills of residents, as well as to guarantee a sufficient reserve of qualified human resource workers to contribute to Macau’s economy diversification and development.

Kong Ngai, Chief of DSEJ’s Continuing Education Department, believes that more Macau residents will take these linguistic exams after the award program’s launching.

Regarding expanding the program to other areas, Kong noted that the next phase of the awards might be established for electricity and cooking related fields.

“We estimate that about 1,000 people will apply for it,” said Lei Lai Keng, chief adviser and high technician at CDT.

When asked why the authorities decided to set the prize at MOP1,000, Lei explained that the prize is mostly a stimulus to encourage the residents.

“MOP1,000 is in fact an incentive through which the committee hopes to inspire the public into participating in the exams,” said Lei.

Lei remarked that there are somewhere around 8,000 people registered in CDT’s Talent Information Registration.