There are currently two schemes helping companies hire Ph.D. holders and train staff. They are meant to help boost Hong Kong's efforts in recruiting and nurturing IT talent. Though, the city continues to face an uphill task when it comes to expanding innovative industries, including workers' skills.
According to the South China Morning Post, a surge of applications opened for the Postdoctoral Hub and the Reindustrialisation and Technology Training programs on Wednesday. As part of the first scheme, selected companies - be it funded by the government or operating from Hong Kong's major innovation hubs - are given the opportunity to hire up to two people with a doctoral degree. This could be engineering, mathematics, science, and technology. Each will reportedly acquire a monthly allowance of about HK$32,000 (US$4,000) for up to 24 months.
Under the second scheme, the government is tasked to subsidize local private companies on a 2:1 matching basis. This is meant to train staff in the field of advanced technologies. The team, on the other hand, must be permanent residents of the city. Each of eligible company will reportedly receive HK$500,000 from the program annually.
A 27-year -old fresh graduate with a doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of Science and Technology named Fred Zhou Xiaoyu described the HK$32,000 allowance as "rather attractive."
"Postdoctoral researchers in local universities are usually paid HK$20,000 to HK$25,000 per month," Zhou claimed. "HK$32,000 should make many young researchers willing to leave campuses for companies."
OpenGov reports that the co-founder and chief executive officer of a fintech start-up said that she had long been waiting for the aforementioned allowance scheme. Her company will move faster on recruiting two shortlisted candidates with doctoral degrees for the position of data scientist.
Both Wong and Langston Suen, founder of biomedical firm Opharmic Technology, said HK$32,000 was a reasonable wage for a postdoctoral talent with little or no working experience.
