Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council (ExCo), has announced that the amount of the new and fifth phase of the government’s continuing education subsidy scheme will remain unchanged at 6,000 patacas.
The new phase will start on Saturday and run until the end of June 2026.
Cheong made the announcement during a press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday.
Cheong said that the government has finished drafting a by-law regulating the fifth phase of its continuing education subsidy scheme, officially known as “Continuing Education and Development Programme”.
Government-drafted by-laws, officially known as administrative regulations, do not require the legislature’s approval.
The administrative regulation on the fifth phase of the programme was promulgated in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday. It will take effect on July 1.
As in the previous phases, the new phase will entitle local residents aged at least 15 to get a 6,000-pataca subsidy to enrol courses run by the city’s various continuing education institutions.
The government first launched the subsidy scheme in 2011 which ran until the end of 2013, with each person then able to receive a 5,000-pataca subsidy. The subsidy was raised to the current 6,000 patacas in 2014 when the scheme’s second phase was launched. The scheme’s third phase started in 2017 and ran until the end of 2019.
The current and fourth phase of the scheme, which started in 2020, runs until the end of August this year.
Different to the previous phases, under the new phase, beneficiaries who take driving courses will have to pay for their tuition fees first when enrolling in the courses. They can only apply to receive the subsidies from the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) after their respective driving tests.
Under the new phase, beneficiaries will also have to first pay their examination fees for obtaining professional certificates, and they can only apply to receive the subsidies after sitting their examinations.
As before, under the new phase beneficiaries who take various other continuing education courses will have their tuition fees automatically paid from their respective subsidy account of the programme.
