Organized by The Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA) since 1990, the most prestigious and authoritative Training and Development Award is now open for application.

Committed to enhancing the city’s quality of training and development, the Award for Excellence in Training and Development has, over the past 30 years, given recognition to individuals’ and companies’ outstanding performance, as well as fostering knowledge sharing in people development and training.

To give further information on the Award 2021, HKMA held an online briefing session on February 9, inviting last years’ award winners to share their tips and experiences.
The Award is divided into two categories: Campaign Awards and Individual Awards, both subject to a rigorous judging process. The Campaign Awards are intended to cover any training or development programmes that are initiated and delivered by Hong Kong, Mainland or overseas organizations for their staff members or service providers.

The panel of adjudicators will present one Gold Award, two Silver Awards, three Bronze Awards and four Excellence Awards to outstanding programmes. In addition, there are 15 Special Awards with different themes that participants can compete for, ranging from Excellence in Innovation to Team Development.

As in previous year, the judging criteria include objective setting, design and implementation, measurement and outcomes, and innovation. Mr. Anthony Rushton, Chairman of the Award Organizing Committee, reminds entrants to pay attention to a new criterion, exceptional meritorious aspects of the intervention, which will account for 10 points.

Winner of the 2020 Gold Award is NewGen programme, a cross-corporate talent and development programme in Hong Kong developed between Fung Group, McDonald’s, New World Development and Towngas. Ms. Esther Lau, the programme representative and senior officer of the Fung Group, shares her tips on how to shine in the competition. “You need to remind yourself that ‘you are the expert in this field’, and always start with ‘why’ when planning your programme.”

Divided into Distinguished Trainer Awards and Outstanding New Trainer Awards, the Individual Award aims to recognize the outstanding achievement of trainers who have made significant contributions to the human resource development of their organizations. An organization can nominate a maximum of five trainers in each category.

Mr. CY Chan, member of the organizing committee, explains the main difference between the two Awards is experience. “The Distinguished Trainer Awards requires entrants to have a minimum of 5 years of experience in the field, while the Outstanding New Trainer Awards target those with less than 5 years of experience.”

Different from the Campaign Award, both Individual Awards will include an interview session. Entrants will be asked to give a presentation on their written submission, along with a Q&A session. To top it off, a Trainer of the Year will be selected by the Panel of Adjudicators from among the Distinguished Trainer Awardees.

Mr. Frank Mok, Training Manager of AIA International Ltd., and winner of the Trainer of the Year Award last year, highlights that practice is key. He reminds entrants to take time with preparations for the interview session, such as mastering relevant data, doing peer reviews, and practising time control.

More Details and Application of the Awards:

Deadline of Application

Campaign Awards: 12 March 2021

Individual Awards: 26 March 2021

Website: www.hkma.org.hk/training-award/

How to shine in the Training and Development Award 2021