Construction Industry Council - Annual Report 2024

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY COUNCIL 126 OPERATIONAL REVIEW To assist these trainees in acquiring professional skills, HKIC arranged soft skills and knowledge enhancement, as well as occupational safety and health courses in the form of group activities, lectures and field trips. Their overall competency development was assessed through several rounds of assessments which included mid-year and final written, and practical fieldwork of tree risk assessments or tree climbing assessments. To promote the UFSF-TP, HKIC arranged a series of promotion activities, which included recruitment talks at tertiary education institutions and job fairs, Job Tasting Programmes, feature advertorials on online and print media, search engine marketing and exposures on digital media platforms of the CIC and industry associations. In the coming years, HKIC will work hand in hand with the Development Bureau to train more arboriculture and tree work experts to facilitate the development of the industry. Arborist trainees are learning the common tree species in urban areas during the field trip at Shing Mun Valley Park Tree climber trainees are learning to use the tree climbing equipment in the skills enrichment programme Urban Forestry Support Fund – Trainee Programme The Urban Forestry Support Fund – Trainee Programme (UFSF-TP) has been in operation since August 2020. Employers in the arboriculture industry are encouraged to engage graduates of arboriculture, tree management, tree climbing and tree work programmes to join the UFSF-TP through the ’first hire-then-train’ mode. Enhancement measures were rolled out in mid-July 2023 to attract more new blood to join the arboriculture industry. As of 31 December 2024, over 250 trainees, including Arborist, Tree Risk Assessor, Tree Work Supervisor, Tree Climber and Tree Climber cum Chainsaw Operator Trainees, had thus far participated in the programme as recommended by their employers ranging from government departments, landscape, arboriculture, construction companies, consultants, racecourse to golf club. Arborist trainees are having the final assessment and assessing tree risk at Kowloon Park Tree climber trainee is having the aerial rescue part of the final assessment