Up to March 2006, over 1,200 Force members have received the training. Among them more than 500 have attended the training on a voluntary basis, indicating not only many Force members are prepared to use their free time to seek development training, but also a new development in voluntary training is taking shape within the Force.

To mark the encouraging development of voluntary training, Police College Director Robin Tse presented a special gift to the 500th voluntary trainee, SGT Tang Kwok-kwong, in PSRC on March 21, in recognition of his voluntary participation.

Mr Tse also encouraged Force members to pursue self-development at their own pace during their free time.

SGT Tang said he attended training on a voluntary basis for the first time because of his interest in the concept of "coaching", as well as the recommendation by colleagues,

He added: "During my training course, I learnt the skills of communicating with others and listening with patience, and these skills are applicable at work and home. I hope more of this kind of programme can be conducted for frontline officers, so as to help them learn how to solve problems themselves."

SGT Tang also said that if there were other suitable programmes in management and psychology, he would not hesitate to attend.

At the same presentation ceremony, seven other officers, who have passed the second trainer assessment on coaching skills, received a trainer certificate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Winton Au from the university's Department of Psychology, who is an Honorary Advisor of the Police College, was the chairman of the assessment panel.

The seven newly certified trainers are SIPs Lam Chiu-chung, Jandy Shek and Alan Tsui, SSGT Chow Kwok-wing, and SGTs Wong Wai-fong, Wong Lap-shing and Denny Lam. They will join other certified trainers to form a voluntary training team to provide more training courses on coaching skills for officers down to the rank of PC.

SIP Shek, from JPO DLD, said that as the training programme for JPO development also included empathetic listening, the technique learnt from the trainer programme can be applied in teaching work, and help officers solve their problems.

Immediately following the ceremony was the first session of a workshop on continuous development, aimed at boosting the knowledge and skills of trained coaches through lectures and sharing of current issues. Altogether, there were four different sessions for over 70 trained coaches.

At these development sessions, five Police Psychologists - Eddie Li, Edmond Lau, Alison Mak, Ingrid Mak and Joan Chan - introduced the psychological effects of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference on police officers, helping trained coaches to handle cases involving officers who worked during HKMC.

CIPs Eppie Mui and Gilbert Wong also shared their own experiences of HKMC with the audience. The ensuing discussion underlined the importance of remaining sensitive to the feelings of fellow officers.

The Learning Development Support Centre of the Police College will continue to coordinate more voluntary training courses on coaching skills from May to July. More information is available on the NoticeBoard on POINT or by calling 2860-5834.

Certified trainers will team up to form a voluntary training team