Winton Au Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

We interviewed a total of 480 employees above the age of 15 in 2001 according to a quota sampling scheme. These respondents were selected to match the demographic characteristics of the year 2000 household survey sample in terms of sex distribution, industry distribution and age distribution. The current sample was reasonably representative of the Hong Kong employee population.

Hours of Participation in Different Types of Continuing Education & Training Activities in Six Months

Respondents reported the number of hours of training they participated in a six-month period since August 2000. The training method was classified in four major categories: (a) courses; (b) lectures, workshops, & seminars, (c) on-job-training & mentoring, and (d) self-study.

Table 1. The average number of hours of participation in different types of continuing education and training activities per month.
	No.	%	Mean Hours*
Course	185	39%	13.6
Lecture, seminar, workshop	109	23%	4.8
On-job training	173	36%	20.3
Self-study	235	49%	14.6

Note: A person can participate in more than one type of continuing education and training activities. * Among respondents who have been participating in each of the corresponding type of training

Table 1 shows that about half (49%) of the respondents have been participating in self-study. The next popular training type was courses (39%), followed by on-job-training (36%), and lectures (23%). Among respondents who have been participating in each of the corresponding type of training, respondents spent most time on on-job training (an average of 20.3 hours per month), followed by self-study (14.6 hours/month), courses (13.6 hours/month) and lectures (4.8 hours/month)

Table 2. Frequency and percentage distribution of participation in different types of continuing education and training activities.
	No.	%
Never	187	39%
Less than 1 hour per week	35	7%
Between one and six hours per week	134	28%
One hour per day	73	15%
Two or more hours per day	54	11%

Table 2 shows that 39% of the respondents had not participated in any continuing education or training activities in the six-month period prior to the survey. 7% of the respondents spent less than one hour per week in training-related activities, 28% spent one to six hours per week, 15% spent one hour per day, and 11% spent two or more hours per day.

Summary and Conclusion

There seems to be two categories of employees in this sample: (a) a majority did not take part in any kind of continuing education or training activities, and (b) among those who did spend time on training, a sizable portion spent one or more hours per day to develop themselves. The conclusion is that a lot of people did not take up continuing education or training. But among those who did, they did it vigorously. The top 11% are even spending two or more hours a day to train themselves to climb up the career ladder through attending courses, lectures, self-study programmes, or on-the-job training. Are you one of the top 11%?

Taken from Career Times 2002/02/08