Empowering tomorrow's talent to shine
Along the journey of safeguarding citizens' health, our professional and passionate colleagues have always been a steadfast source of support of Hospital Authority (HA). We believe that talent is our most valuable asset. Through diverse training programmes and experiential activities, we attract talent and allow the public to better understand hospital operations, sparking their interest in healthcare industry and injecting continuous vitality into the HA.
Learning by doing: Finance trainees embark on career journey
Since 2019, the Finance Division of HA Head Office (HO) has offered the Finance Graduate Trainee Programme (GT Programme), a two-year training designed for graduates. Upon completion, trainees with satisfactory performance will have their appointment renewed and deployed to HAHO and Cluster Finance teams as Accounting Officer II.
A defining feature of the GT Programme is its six- to 12-month job rotations, which allows trainees to experience diverse financial roles across the healthcare system. Yvonne Lau, who joined the GT Programme last year, is currently in rotation at the Kowloon Central Cluster. She expresses the novelty between her two roles, "my work at HAHO is more strategic, such as being involved in the zero-based budgeting exercise, reviewing the effectiveness of every expenditure item to ensure optimal resource allocation for the future. At the hospital, my work is closer to daily financial operations, and I need to interact with colleagues from various departments to understand their resource needs."
Financial Analyst Harrison Chen, who also took part in the GT Programme and was deployed to HAHO upon completion, remarks, "in my previous internships in other companies, I mainly focused on one single financial function, but here I could experience different positions – from promoting electronic payments and processing patient refunds at the hospital's shroff office to handling staff provident funds matters. This comprehensive exposure, from frontline to back-office work, broadened my financial horizons." In addition, the work experience accumulated in the GT Programme was of great help to him later in obtaining the professional accountant qualification.
Senior staff are assigned as mentors in the programme. Yvonne highlights that her mentor always encourages her not to hesitate in asking questions. She feels more confident in expressing her views when working on new projects and receives valuable feedback from the mentor. Harrison also recalls that whenever a trainee rotates to the next position, the previous trainee in post will become his 'Buddy' to help him adapt quickly to the new job. Both state that the GT Programme enables them to gain diverse financial knowledge through practice while enhancing their essential soft skills such as adaptability and self‑learning. Since its launch, the programme has recruited 64 trainees, with 20 of them currently in rotations and 31 deployed to HAHO and Clusters upon completion, making it a key talent pipeline for the Finance Division.
