INSIDE the classroom in Choi Hung, 20 out of 21 students are middle-aged housewives. The women's educational background ranges from primary school to Form Five but they are all learning Chinese word processing to help them get back to work. So Wai-sze, a Form Five graduate, has been married for 16 years. Her two daughters are 14 and nine and she has been out of the workforce for nearly 13 years, bringing up her children and looking after the family home. Now she wants to go back to work and, while her children are in school, she attends computer classes provided by the Government's Employees Retraining Board. ''It's boring and a waste of time staying at home with nothing to do,'' Ms So said. Before she married, she worked as a clerk for two years. But office work today is not like it was 13 years ago, when Ms So never had to touch a computer. Now she is learning typing, Chinese and English word processing to keep in step with the hi-tech office. ''Sometimes I am still afraid that I might not be able to cope with my job once I start working,'' Ms So said. ''At first, many housewives taking classes have computer phobia, now they love it,'' said David Lui Kin-ming, assistant manager of the Christian Action learning centre where some Board classes are held. The Board now offers over 30 skilled courses. Hotel cleaning, office assistants and receptionist courses last a few weeks. Language courses in Japanese, Putonghua or English may last six months. The programme also aims to help retrainees identify their own strengths, improve interpersonal skills and build up a positive work attitude. ''A lot of learning is done through activities such as small group discussions, outings and visits. It's a very lively programme which helps the women overcome their fears and which everyone enjoys,'' said Mr Chow Tung-shan, the Board's executive director. In February 1993, women's groups pointed out that housewives would like to rejoin the employment market if suitable training was provided. Two months later, the Board accepted the groups' proposal and courses opened for housewives. ''Over 80 per cent of the retrainees are now housewives,'' said Chan Yuen-han, executive standing committee member of the Federation of Trade Unions, who also suggested to the Board in April last year that housewives be made the focus of its training schemes. ''They create a very warm and friendly learning environment,'' she said. When the Board was first set up in 1992, the aim was to retrain local workers so that the labour market kept pace with changes in the economy. Housewives did not fall into that category. ''At that time, the programme was designed on the assumption that workers were displaced because they lacked vocational skills. Many of the workers who finished training with us could not find a job, or the job they found was totally unrelated to what they had learned here,'' said Mr Chow. Last April the Board made a number of policy changes, including adopting a market-oriented approach to training and targeting housewives. Now the Board identifies what employers want - for example, Chinese word processing skills - and starts a class. It also believes the housewives form a valuable pool of potential manpower to alleviate the territory's labour shortage. Hong Kong has 391,000 housewives between the ages of 30 to 50. Once the women enrol, they get paid by the Board: $3,400 a month for those who attend courses full-time and $30 a day for those attending one course only. After discovering that companies regarded the attitude of the interviewee as an important factor in selecting applicants, the Board also developed a five-day induction course on strategic job search skills emphasising a positive attitude towards life andwork. After the five-day course, applicants are lined up for job interviews with companies which have connections with the Board. Between August and December last year, 700 retrainees finished the five-day course. Over 500 of them have found jobs as cleaners, messengers, clerks, waiters, cashiers and teachers. Those who still can't find a job after two or three weeks can attend a one-week course to find out what went wrong. There are many reasons for failing to find a job, Mr Chow said. First there is the psychological barrier. Many women lack self-confidence after staying away from the job market for 10 to 20 years. Secondly, some have false expectations, looking for jobs they are not properly equipped for. Four hundred companies are now involved in the scheme and are employing the Board's retrainees. They include banks, hotels, department stores, utility companies, shops, offices and security firms. One employer, the Park Lane Hotel hired 20 of the Board's retrainees last year as room attendants, cleaners and dishwashers. The women were in their late 30s and 40s. ''Their work attitude was very good. But some couldn't cope with the heavy workload and resigned. We counselled them and some then stayed,'' said Mr Samuel Chan Suen, training manager of the Park Lane hotel. Five women are still there. The Board's Mr Chow said: ''The attitude of employers is changing as they take a more open-minded approach to women's age and education. With companies who hire young, pretty girls as receptionists, it's just that old habits die hard rather than discriminating against older women,'' Mr Chow said. But housewives who are not part of the Board's scheme, still have a difficult time finding jobs as they are considered too old by employers, according to Linda Wong Sau-yung, spokeswoman for Women's Centre. ''The Board's scheme is only a short-term plan. There is no long-term policy to find jobs for these women. ''There is a large labour supply for employers who can choose to hire younger women or imported workers,'' Ms Wong said. At first, many housewives taking classes have computer phobia, now they love it
