Method
A mail questionnaire survey was carried out to collect information on employers’ views
about knowledge and skills training needs.
The sample
Given the lack of availability of neither firm population statistics, nor company
directories for the region, a convenience sampling method was adopted for data
collection. The Trade and Development Council (TDC) in Hong-Kong database as of
March 2004 had 29,496 Hong Kong firms which claimed to have investments in the
JEIT
32,1
22
PRD. Of these, 5,146 firms were selected as the sample for this survey with the
following criteria:
. All firms with over 50 employees on the mainland (a total of 1,600 firms).
. 50 percent of firms, drawn randomly from the TDC database, with between 11
and 50 employees on the mainland (a total of 3,546 firms).
. All firms with ten or less employees on the mainland were excluded from the
survey.