Training programs are considered by our respondents as the most appropriate form of human capital investment for their staff. However, at the same time, respondents also consider training programs as having only a very low perceived monetary value. The three most valued subject knowledge areas are Marketing, Management and Languages: all practical skills and targeted to middle level staff – who seem the only ones deserving of a Hong-Kong human capital investment. The concentration of investment at that level can be explained as follows: First, some of those intermediate level staff may advance their career and hold senior staff positions, in which case the transition will be all the more successful if they have been properly trained. Second, the growing requirements of modern business, as new technologies and management procedures become available, entails better trained managers and employees. Hence, middle level staff, the backbone of any organization, are perceived to necessitate training because they may need better skills to hold on to the same level positions – intermediate level – as business complexity progresses