Government to create databank for securing young talent

Sou Chio Fai says the database on the local talents will be a reference for policy makers

The government is building a databank on its young people receiving tertiary educations locally or overseas in order to help policy makers attract talented workers and cultivate the professionals Macau needs.
On the sidelines of a visit to UM’s Hengqin campus, the Coordinator of Tertiary Education Services Office, Sou Chio Fai, said the office is building a database on the city’s talents. The initial batch of data was collected in the past two months during a MOP2,000 subsidy for residents receiving tertiary education locally or overseas. Among the 33,821 students registered, 24,310 already have their information verified, and 13,464 have already received the subsidy.
The information showed that among the 33,821 students, 16,485 are studying in Macau, while 15,396 are studying overseas, mostly in mainland China (7,050), Taiwan (4,244) and Hong Kong (2,688). Portugal has 171, while English-speaking countries USA, Britain and Australia have 828, 871, and 848 respectively. Most of the students are undergraduates (24,947), 3,552 are doing masters-level degrees, and 373 are undertaking doctorates.      
While the majority of them (13,854) are specialized in social sciences, commerce and law, undergraduates and post-graduates in the humanities and arts programs have increased to nearly 5,000. Sou suggests that this is a result of the Macau government’s recent policies aimed at strengthening developments in creative industries.
Sou said the authority would further expand and refine the database to serve as a reference for policy makers so that they could know what talents were available and what the government should do to cultivate the human resources Macau needs.
The office is also looking at how other countries and regions make use of the education of foreign students as an alternative supply of necessary workers, but he stressed that these studies were not aimed at keeping foreign students studying in Macau (to stay here and work). Instead, he stressed, it’s important to know other countries’ education policies in order to better formulate Macau’s policies to attract talents to the city.            

S.C.