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List of Recommendations of the Task Force on Promotion of Vocational and Professional Education and Training
1. Facing the challenges in the 21st century, the education system needs to nurture applied skills to integrate different knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. The Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) pathways should be expanded and enriched to offer more programmes with greater flexibility as well as an emphasis on application and industry input, while underpinned by a robust qualifications system, with a view to enabling young people to acquire professional work skills, applied knowledge in innovation and technology, as well as critical soft skills for career progression in the new digital age.
Promotion of VPET in Secondary Education
2. To improve the overall quality of VPET programmes and activities in secondary schools through the existing platforms, including the Business- School-Partnership Programme, by strengthening coordination, fostering wider industry collaboration, and formulating an incentive mechanism for industry partners.
3. To encourage more industry partners to provide VPET-related activities for junior secondary students and involve more teachers and parents in these activities through the existing platforms.
4. To provide external advisory service on VPET for teachers and career masters of secondary schools under a pilot scheme to offer one-stop professional service for teachers on a wide array of issues pertaining to VPET, including on-demand consultation service, an online teachers’ kit, professional development workshops, on-site VPET activities for students, and consolidation of related online resources.
5. To encourage parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and federations of PTAs (FPTAs) to organise more VPET promotion activities at the school and/or district level, making good use of the increased funding for parent education programmes or activities which is available to PTAs and FPTAs,
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starting from the 2019/20 school year.
6. To continue the Government’s efforts to promote VPET through Applied Learning (ApL), by strengthening the engagement of industrial partners, enhancing workplace experience, and piloting the development of VPET learning pathways starting with ApL courses and providing articulation opportunities to Higher Diploma (HD) and top-up degree programmes.
7. To strengthen support for secondary schools to develop school-based vocational training courses recognised under the Qualifications Framework (QF) by offering sharing sessions, advice, and facilitation in the accreditation process.
Promotion of VPET in Higher Education
8. To reiterate the value and positioning of VPET in higher education, and provide a clearly defined and differentiated VPET pathway from the academic route while upholding their parity in terms of both quality and recognition.
9. To explore ways to facilitate the development of applied degrees at the Bachelor’s degree level, by ensuring that the qualifications systems and other infrastructure can accommodate the future development of applied degrees which are characterised by the following features: a qualifications level at QF Level 5; flexible admission requirements; an applied focus and substantial work-based learning element in the curriculum; and strong industry involvement and recognition. A pilot project could be implemented for selected VPET programme areas to test the modifications required to better support the development of applied degrees.
10. As part of the sub-degree review, to conduct a comprehensive review on the HD qualification, with a view to reinforcing its role as a key VPET pathway at the post-secondary level. The review should cover the positioning of HD in the higher education system; possible enhancements to the programme structure and curriculum; modes of teaching and learning;
admission requirements; a mechanism for industry involvement; articulation to the proposed applied degrees; and recognition as an exit qualification.
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11. To conduct a comprehensive review on the Training and Support Scheme implemented by the Vocational Training Council (VTC) (also known as the VTC Earn and Learn Scheme) to enhance apprenticeship training, including increasing incentives for employers, strengthening its dual-track learning mode, and enhancing its workplace learning and assessment.
12. To formulate more robust policies to encourage, coordinate, support, and facilitate the post-secondary education sector, including the self- financing post-secondary institutions, to incorporate work-based learning and assessment in their VPET programmes at both the sub-degree and degree levels through close partnership with industries, including considering extending the Pilot Incentive Scheme to Employers to include institutions other than the VTC.
Development of Vocational Progression Pathways
13. To explore the development of a vocational route whereby professional skill-based vocational qualifications can be acquired flexibly through an appropriate combination of vocational training at schools, workplace assessment, or in-service training, and duly recognised under the QF in close partnership with the industries. As a start, the Government should explore with relevant industries, regulatory and professional bodies, and training institutions how to develop professional pathways in selected industries.
14. To reaffirm the QF’s role in supporting VPET development by encouraging more stakeholders, including Government departments and industry partners, to adopt the QF.
15. To consider expanding the Pilot Subsidy Scheme for Students of Professional Part-time Programmes to include students pursuing a wider range of dedicated part-time programmes, with a view to encouraging working adults to pursue higher VPET qualifications.
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Future Promotion of VPET
16. To formulate a coherent message in the publicity of VPET in order to highlight VPET’s association with work skills for the future. The message should be able to convey the diversity and prospects of VPET as well as its appeal to the younger generation.
17. To adopt a more innovative, targeted, and coordinated approach in the publicity on VPET with a view to raising the public awareness, including establishing a standing steering committee to oversee the overall VPET promotion strategy, promoting success stories of past VPET students, enhancing the transparency of VPET-related statistics and articulation opportunities, and continuing to conduct tracking surveys on key stakeholders’ attitudes towards VPET in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Government’s initiatives in promoting VPET.
18. To continue supporting the VTC and other VPET bodies organising and participating in large-scale VPET events on a regular basis, including the VPET International Conference and WorldSkills Hong Kong Competition and Carnival in 2020, to raise the public awareness and understanding of the significance of professional skills.
