Continuing Education Fund (CEF)

• Applicants who apply for CEF for the first time or applicants who have opened CEF accounts before 1 August 2022 (regardless of whether their accounts were closed in the past), they may submit claims for reimbursement of fees for CEF reimbursable courses commenced on or after 1 August 2022.

• The maximum entitlement for new applicants is HK$25,000. For applicants who have opened CEF accounts before 1 August 2022, they are eligible for claiming the additional HK$5,000 subsidy and the unused balance (if any) of the original subsidy of HK$20,000. The co-payment ratios by learners (i.e. the percentage of fees to be borne by learners) for the first HK$10,000 subsidy is 20% of the course fee* and that for the remaining HK$15,000 subsidy is 40% of the course fee.

  Note:

  *

  Course fees refer to tuition fees and examination fees for taking designated language benchmark tests / examinations (if applicable) in respect of language proficiency courses. Any other fees, such as late charges and change of course charges, etc. are not reimbursable.

• Applicants must be aged 18 or above when the CEF reimbursable course commenced and the application must be submitted within one year upon the successful completion of the course (Note: according to the course completion date or the date of the specified language benchmark test / examination (if applicable), whichever is later). Late applications will not be accepted.

• Applicants are required to complete the Application Form [SFO 313 (2024)] and submit the supporting documents. This application form is also applicable to applicants who have opened a CEF account before 1 August 2022 to apply for fee reimbursement only.

• The date of receipt of the application by OCEF will be taken as the date of application submitted.

• Applicants who wish to submit an additional CEF course for reimbursement after submitting an application are required to submit another application separately.

• The OCEF will verify the eligibility of applicants with the respective institutions / course providers upon receiving the application form (i.e. whether the applicant has successfully completed the CEF courses and met all other requirements for CEF reimbursement of fees).

• All supporting documents submitted to the OCEF are non-returnable. Applicants should retain copies for their own reference if deemed necessary.

• Applications are processed subject to availability of funds from the CEF. In the event that CEF no longer has funds available when an applicant submits an application, the application will not be approved regardless of whether the applicant fulfils the eligibility requirements for claiming reimbursement from CEF. This restriction applies to all provisions in the Guidance Notes [SFO 312_E (2024)].

To save paper and simplify the application process, applicants can choose to fill in and submit the electronic Continuing Education Fund Application Form and relevant supporting documents online.

Applicants may complete and submit the online application form with supporting documents through “GovHK”. Applicants who did not use “iAM Smart+” for digital signing in the online submission of the application form are required to print out a hard copy of the form and sign the Declaration in Part D and submit the printed form with original signature to the OCEF within one month after online submission in order to be considered as a valid application. Applicants using “iAM Smart+” for digital signing are not required to submit the printed copy of application form to the OCEF.

• Application form [SFO 313 (2024)] can be obtained from OCEF or Home Affairs Enquiry Centres, or downloaded from this website. The original of the completed application form with copies of supporting documents [One-way Permit (if applicable), documentary proof of passing the specified language benchmark test / examination (if applicable), language benchmark test / examination fee receipts (if applicable) and the front page of the applicant’s bank passbook or bank statement showing the name, account number and bank name / bank code] should be posted or submitted in person to OCEF.

  Address
  Office of the Continuing Education Fund Units 07-11, 25/F., CDW Building 388 Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan New Territories

• Applicants may also place their applications in the drop-in boxes located at the following addresses. Please note the opening hours of the drop-in boxes.

  Location of Drop-in Box:	Address
  Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices	303 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Kowloon 11/F Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices, Student Finance Office Opening hours: Mondays to Fridays (except public holidays), 8:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
  Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices	303 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Kowloon G/F lift lobby of Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices. The public can enter the building through the side entrance near the security counter. Opening hours: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (whole day)
  Office of the Continuing Education Fund	Near the main entrance of the Office of the Continuing Education Fund Units 07-11, 25/F., CDW Building 388 Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan New Territories Opening hours: Mondays to Sundays, 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Points to Note:

• Only eligible applicant who has successful completed a CEF reimbursable course can apply for reimbursement of course fees. “Successful completion” of a CEF reimbursable course means that the applicant must have attended no less than 70% of the contactable hours of the CEF reimbursable course or such higher attendance requirement as prescribed for the CEF reimbursable course (whichever is higher) and attained an overall mark of either 50% or such higher percentage of assessment(s) as prescribed for the CEF reimbursable course (whichever is higher) as assessed by whichever method approved by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare (including any examination and assignment requirements with approved weighting).

• Applicants studying language proficiency course are required to pass a specified language benchmark test / examination (if applicable) at the specified (or higher) level to be eligible for fee reimbursement. Language benchmark tests / examinations should be taken by the applicants after the language proficiency course has commenced, and the applications must be submitted within one year upon the successful completion of the course (Note: according to the course completion date or the date of the specified language benchmark test / examination, whichever is later). Copies of documentary proof of passing the specified language benchmark test / examination (if applicable) and language benchmark test / examination fee receipts (if applicable) should be submitted together with copies of relevant supporting documents in respect of the language proficiency course. Reimbursement of language benchmark test / examination fees alone is not allowed.

• Applicant can make use of the same language benchmark test / examination to support the claims for more than one CEF language proficiency course but the fees for the language benchmark tests / examinations can only be claimed once. The examination date of the language benchmark test / examination must fall after the course commencement date of the reimbursable course(s) used for claiming CEF. Information on the specified language benchmark tests / examinations and levels of the language proficiency courses can be downloaded from the “Reimbursable Course List” in this website.

• A claim for reimbursement of the language benchmark test / examination fees will only be entertained if it is accompanied with a claim for the relevant language proficiency course.

• Applicants must respect of any courses, modules or units of study credits for which the fees are to be reimbursed, the applicant must not have obtained any other public funds or assistance under any other publicly-funded financial assistance schemes for the same course, such as pursuing courses funded by the University Grants Committee, grants or loans from the “Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students” administered by the WFSFAA, subsidy from the “Non-means-tested Subsidy Scheme for Self-financing Undergraduate Studies in Hong Kong” or “Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions / Sectors”, etc.

• If an eligible applicant obtained loans from the “Extended Non-means-tested Loan Scheme” (ENLS) administered by WFSFAA to meet the payment of fees for a CEF reimbursable course, the CEF reimbursement would first be used to offset any outstanding ENLS loans borrowed by the applicant for paying the tuition fee in respect of the same course. Any remaining balance of the CEF reimbursement after offsetting the loan amount will be credited to the designated account of the applicant.

• Applicants are required to sign a ‘Statement of Consent and Acknowledgement’ provided by the institutions / course providers upon the enrollment of CEF course. The eligibility for fee reimbursement under the CEF may be affected if the applicants failed to sign the relevant statement or confirmed not to apply for fee reimbursement under the CEF for the enrolled course and do not consent to the disclosure of their personal data to the Specified Public Authorities.

• The OCEF will not accept reimbursement of additional courses which are not stated on the Application Form. Applicant may submit a new application for reimbursement of other courses.

• In processing the applications for fee reimbursement of courses to which commenced on or after 1 August 2022, if there is an unused balance for the first HK$10,000 subsidy, the unused balance and co-payment amount by the applicant of the first HK$10,000 subsidy would be used for calculation of the fee reimbursement amount first. The balance of the remaining course fee after deduction of the reimbursement amount under the first HK$10,000 subsidy will then be allotted to the remaining HK$15,000 subsidy for calculation.

• Applicants are required to input the course in sequence from the earliest course commencement date up to the latest one when completing the application form. OCEF may rearrange the sequence of course submitted for the purpose of maximizing the reimbursed amount.

• Failure to provide all the necessary documents may lead to the rejection of the application.

• The CEF account for an applicant will be invalidated when the full sum of HK$25,000 subsidy has been reimbursed.

Disclaimer

Applications made on forms downloaded from this website have to be submitted in paper format in person or by post to the Office of the Continuing Education Fund. Any alternation of the terms and conditions on the application forms is NOT permitted. Office of the Continuing Education Fund reserves the right to take legal and / or administrative action against any unauthorized alteration of the application forms and reject the application concerned.

If there are any discrepancies between the downloaded forms and the master copy, the latter one should be treated as the final version. Master copy of the application forms can be obtained from Home Affairs Enquiry Centres and Office of the Continuing Education Fund.