Ir Lee Kin-fai, also known as K.F., currently General Manager of The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas), is best described as a “devoted”, “committed”, and “tireless” worker. Having served the company for over three decades, K.F. was once enrolled in the apprenticeship programme jointly offered by Towngas and VTC. Throughout various stages of his career, he has been involved in customer service, installation and maintenance, acquiring both hands-on experiences and strategic planning skills. He has been climbing the hierarchical ladder steadily and is now a member of the senior management team in charge of customer installation and enquiries. K.F.’s achievements today can be attributed to his tireless attitude towards learning, his perseverance towards his goals, as well as his people-oriented approach towards services. Like a man trying to reach the peak from the dense jungle at the foot of a mountain, K.F. has strived to cut the weeds and bushes that block his path. With his eyes firmly on his goals, he has been making his way towards success step by step.
Persevering and tireless learner
K.F. has long been interested in engineering. When he was young, he would take apart a radio to study the internal components. He even fixed his own model cars that had broken down. Upon graduating from a secondary school, he started working full time and explored his career options. He decided to join Towngas and enrol in the apprenticeship scheme for gas technicians. Working during the day and studying in the evening for the VTC’s part-time certificate programme in mechanical engineering, he was able to earn money while procuring a professional qualification. Apart from teaching professional skills, the programme also enabled him to be an engineer, killing two birds with one stone.
Towngas’ comprehensive training programme exposed K.F. to various duties and tasks within the company – from frontline gas appliance and piping maintenance and installation, back-end gas production, and construction and maintenance of gas transmission and distribution network; to the development and sales of cooktops and stoves. Although K.F. had to juggle with his full-time work and part-time study, he enjoyed it a lot. “During the day, I learned from experienced masters in the trade and I practised various skills and procedures under their supervision. At night, I laid a solid theoretical foundation for my practice. When I wanted to know more, I would go to the library to check out some textbooks, so as to fully grasp the materials covered by my teachers.” He was eager to learn and earned high praise from his teachers for his diligence. During the four-year apprenticeship, he also earned a bachelor's degree in applied computing as a part-time student. Young and energetic, he planned ahead and prepared himself for his future career.
Passing on skills with loving care
In a master-apprentice relationship, a master passes on his exceptional skills and profound knowledge not only in words, but also with demonstrations and hands-on practices. As his masters were always serious about their trades and were meticulous in their teaching, K.F. dared not slack off. In addition to showing him how to repair the piping in stoves and how to replace a gas hose, his masters also taught him technical engineering skills, greatly boosting his confidence and perseverance to learn the craft well. After honing his skills, he was allowed to conduct the tasks independently, so that he could accumulate experience to be a competent gas fitter. This is how a Chinese saying goes, “One kind word warms the heart for three winters.” Throughout the teaching process, his masters had been accommodating, caring and encouraging. Their honest and compassionate remarks have since fuelled K.F.’s passion in pursuing skills and knowledge. Even till this day, he can’t help smiling sweetly whenever he reminisces about those days when he was an apprentice.
Building connections is another benefit of apprenticeships. Not only did K.F. get to know fellow apprentices in the same cohort as him, but also many other workers of various seniority levels. After becoming a full-time employee, whenever he encountered issues in areas that weren’t his strong suits, he had little problem seeking help from the colleagues he knew. A solid foundation of mutual trust built upon their friendships since their days as apprentices, coupled with their lasting relationships both as friends and mentors, also helps improve their efficiency at work.
Solving problems with extensive experiences
After the apprenticeship programme, K.F. was assigned to work in the customer service department. Right then, Towngas planned to start an integrated customer service hotline centre in order to put various customer service teams across the territories under one roof. That’s when K.F.’s computer engineering knowledge came in handy. With computer programming, he compiled Q&A guidelines to facilitate customer support triage according to the service they needed, thereby shortening the wait time. Meanwhile, his system helped customer service officers handle common customer enquiries and answer specific questions more effectively and quickly. K.F. earned precious experience and insights with this project, exposing him to the operation of the technical department, as well as customers’ issues and specific needs. In order to pursue higher knowledge, he decided to study diligently and practise what he learned. So he enrolled in a Master’s programme in building services engineering and obtained the qualification as a chartered engineer of the UK.
Later on, K.F. was assigned to the technical department to lead the maintenance and installation team respectively. Following the spirit of the master-apprentice system in the old days, he often demonstrated installation techniques in person and shared his experience generously. Whenever his colleagues encountered difficulties at work, K.F. would be there to find solutions with them. From his apprenticeship experience, he learned to have empathy for frontline colleagues. He deeply understands how his colleagues feel when they come across a problem. With just a little extra effort, he can help them solve the problems. That’s why his shrewd leadership is unanimously admired, and he is highly regarded by his colleagues.
Working hand in hand to accomplish missions
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the HKSAR government needed to convert unoccupied public housing units into temporary quarantine facilities. Water heaters and gas meters were urgently needed to be installed in over 100 quarantine units within one day. As Towngas undertakes the mission of serving the Hong Kong people, K.F. quickly convened frontline technicians to complete the task on the first day of the Chinese New Year, thanks to the hard work and coordination of various departments. In the following three months, K.F. and his teams worked day and night to install Towngas equipment for over 3,000 quarantine units. From the beginning to the completion of the project, K.F. was touched by how his colleagues worked unremittingly towards the same goal, their excellent and professional performance, as well as their unwavering love for Hong Kong. In the face of the pandemic, everyone was willing to do whatever they could to ride out the difficult times without fear.
Always equipped to charge ahead
For younger VTC students who want to unleash their full potential, K.F. believes they should equip themselves and be always ready. “Opportunities are for those who are well prepared. If I hadn’t had a Bachelor's degree in applied computing, how could I seize the opportunity to start a customer service hotline centre? If I had not signed up for the apprenticeship programme jointly offered by Towngas and VTC, how could I achieve what I have achieved today? One thing leads to another – because of my experience with the customer service hotline centre, I had a deeper understanding of customers’ needs. That’s how I mastered the key factors to improve the service of the maintenance and installation department.” To reach one’s goal, he believes one must learn continuously, keep abreast of the trends in the workplace and the required skill set, and put oneself in others’ shoes. Eventually, one would achieve success that way.
