Hong Kong is a cosmopolitan city with pools of talent in various sectors. With the prosperous development of the local construction industry, there has been a great demand for professionals in the sector. According to the statistics of the Construction Industry Council, the industry is currently short of around 4 000 professionals, including engineers, architects and surveyors, and it is expected that the number will rise to around 6 000 in the coming years. Since the number of local university graduates in the relevant professions cannot meet the city’s demand, under the premise of safeguarding employment priority for local talent, the Development Bureau (DEVB) has been actively helping the sector ”go global” and trawling overseas and Mainland talent appropriately. This time, I would like to invite my colleagues to introduce the recruitment activities that we have co-organised with the construction industry in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Mainland since last year. Additionally, we are grateful to have the hired graduates and their employers to share their experiences.

The DEVB’s assistance in helping the industry recruit construction professionals from the UK and the Mainland

Engineer (Works Policies) of the DEVB, Ms LU Dan-dan, Amy, states that the DEVB, in conjunction with engineering-related professional bodies and trade associations, conducted recruitment activities in 3 regions in the UK with participation of a total of 10 universities early this year to introduce to graduates-to-be and young professionals there opportunities offered by Hong Kong's construction industry. According to Ms Amy LU, apart from overseas universities, the DEVB has also collaborated with local construction and engineering enterprises to visit 10 universities in the Mainland since the second quarter of last year. Recruitment activities have been organised for students there to introduce the development of Hong Kong's construction industry, and young professionals coming from the Mainland have also been invited to share their working and living experiences in Hong Kong. The recruitment activities have received overwhelming responses with over 40 participating enterprises hiring 127 non-local graduates so far and they have already been working in Hong Kong.

The industry’s being satisfied with the performance of Mainland talent and looking forward to an increase in the number of talent recruited to facilitate sustainable development of enterprises

Chairman and Managing Director of Chevalier International Holdings Ltd., Mr KUOK Hoi-sang, says that his company has been encountering difficulties in recruiting graduates of various professions. Last year, thanks to the Mainland recruitment programme of the DEVB, his company successfully recruited 13 graduates, he regards this as a good try. He is of the view that every company wants to achieve sustainable development, but development requires not only “financial capability” but also ”talent”.

Mr KUOK says that there are many outstanding students with aspirations and ideas in the Mainland. Specifically, Ms KE Lingzhu, one of the assistant engineers hired through this programme, has left him a deep impression. Ms KE is currently working in the company’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) Department. The department head is highly satisfied with her performance, working attitude and achievements, particularly her humility and tenacity in pursuit of excellence.

Ms KE has a master degree in municipal engineering awarded by the School of Civil Engineering of the Guangzhou University and is mainly working in the field of BIM. She comments that Hong Kong's advantage lies in its abundant development opportunities in construction engineering, which enables her to apply her academic knowledge, utilise her expertise and develop her career. She hopes to further accumulate experience and obtain professional qualifications in order to enhance her performance in the future.

Wide recognition of the recruitment programme led by the DEVB in the Mainland  Opportunities for Mainland graduates to develop career in Hong Kong

Project Director of Binnies Hong Kong Limited, Mr Tony LAU, says that since the number of local engineering graduates cannot meet the demand in Hong Kong, his company has encountered a “bottleneck” when expanding its business and recruiting additional manpower. He says that his company has experienced many difficulties in conducting recruitment exercises in the Mainland. For example, getting in contact with renowned universities in the Mainland is extremely difficult. Since Mainland universities and students know little about the construction engineering enterprises in Hong Kong, if his company conducts recruitment exercises by itself, the exercises will neither gain wide recognition nor receive overwhelming responses from students. Therefore, he welcomes the DEVB to organise recruitment exercises. His company has followed the DEVB to visit some renowned universities in the Mainland for recruitment of graduates. The process has been smooth with high recognition, making it easier to attract talent from the Mainland.

Assistant Engineer of Binnies Hong Kong Limited, Mr Justin XU, was graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering of the Shenzhen University. In April last year, he joined a career fair jointly organised by the DEVB and Hong Kong’s construction engineering enterprises at the Shenzhen University. After learning about the golden development opportunities in Hong Kong’s construction industry as well as engineers’ salary levels and career paths, he considered Hong Kong would provide him with a good platform and a bright career prospect, and thus decided to work in Hong Kong after graduation. According to Justin, he enjoys the working atmosphere in Hong Kong very much and appreciates the friendliness of his colleagues. They will give him advice when he encounters difficulties at work. As to the working pace and culture, he can still have his private time after work to enjoy gourmet food from all over the world.

Benefiting the “development and construction” sector through the expansion of the “Talent List” by the Government

People Director, East Asia of Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited, Ms Jenny PONG, says that due to the shortage of both frontline workers and professionals in the construction industry, it is not easy for her company to recruit talent. Hence, she is pleased that apart from strengthening local training, the Government relaxed the immigration threshold for talent to remove relevant constraints and expanded the coverage of the “Talent List” to benefit the “development and construction” sector last year by streamlining the application process. She adds that it has become easier and faster for the construction industry to recruit professionals from the Mainland or overseas places, as a result, sufficient manpower can be acquired for the sustainable development of her company and relevant construction projects.

Senior East Asia Innovation and Sustainable Development Manager of Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited, Mr Jasper Hilkhuijsen, says that the development of the construction industry in Hong Kong is fast-paced, highly efficient, and challenging, and can provide a sense of achievement. It is very easy for him to evaluate his new designs at the construction sites and identify the strengths and weaknesses quickly.

Graduate Engineer of Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited, Ms Nazym Ziyabek, says that it is very interesting to work as a civil and structural engineer in Hong Kong as it is famous for its high density and innovation. All skyscrapers, bridges, tunnels, public transport and the Mass Transit Railway system involve a lot of technologies. Such a diversified scope of work cannot be easily found elsewhere. She expects that Kau Yi Chau artificial islands will become a pioneer project in the construction industry to help unlock the development potential for the whole industry.

Strengthening the nurturing of local talent Facilitating recruitment work

Assistant Secretary (Works Policies) of the DEVB, Mr WONG Chi-yung, emphasises that the DEVB has been attaching great importance to nurturing local professionals, and has been collaborating with the construction industry to step up training and recruitment efforts, including organising recruitment activities at local universities to attract young people to join the industry with a view to solving the problem of manpower shortage. He also mentions that the works departments under the DEVB have been working closely with local universities to explore the optimisation of the curriculum design of relevant professions with an aim to enhancing the curriculum quality and competitiveness of local graduates.

The DEVB will continue to listen to the voices of the industry and work closely with it to address the challenges and seize the opportunities of the local construction industry with a view to promoting the sustainable development of Hong Kong’s infrastructure and building a better future.