VPET Initiatives
The Training and Support Scheme aims to attract and retain talent for specific industries with a keen demand for labour through integrating structured apprenticeship training programmes with clear career progression pathway.
The Scheme covers industries meeting the following criteria –
(a) the industry is facing labour shortage and/or ageing problems, and it has difficulties in hiring and retaining young people;
(b) the relevant trades covered under the industry are very specialised and with a high level of technology contents; and
(c) the industry is committed to provide allowance or subsidy to trainees and to offer a certain salary level to trainees who have completed the apprenticeship training and are willing to join relevant industries.
The Pilot Scheme has been implemented through the Vocational Training Council (VTC) since the 2014/15 academic year. The Government works with the participating industries to encourage more trainees to join industries which require specialised skills under the “Earn and Learn” model. The scheme has been regularised since the 2019/20 academic year with an increased number of training places to 1 200 per year and an increased average monthly subsidy of $2,500 per month for each trainee.
Thus far, the Government has introduced several improvement measures to enhance the Scheme. In order to evaluate trainees’ abilities and performance in the workplace more effectively, the Government has introduced a three-year “Pilot Incentive Scheme to Employers” starting from the 2019/20 academic year. With a subsidy of up to $36,000 per trainee, it encourages employers to participate in workplace assessment for trainees. This will facilitate the adjustment of the content of training courses more effectively and improve trainees’ work performance.
On the other hand, to further enhance the VPET learning experience, the Government has been providing a non-recurrent funding of about $20 million in total to support trainees under the Training and Support Scheme to take part in study and exchange programmes outside Hong Kong, allowing them to attend short-term skills and practical courses as well as visit institutions/enterprises in those places, with a view to facilitating skills exchange and broadening their exposure, for three years starting from the 2020/21 academic year.
It was announced in the 2022-23 Budget that the “Pilot Incentive Scheme to Employers” and the “Pilot International Study Programme” under the Training and Support Scheme would be extended for two years. The Government announced in the 2024-25 Budget to further extend the “Pilot Incentive Scheme to Employers” for five years to encourage employers to provide workplace learning opportunities and benefit more trainees.
For details, please refer to the relevant website: http://www.vtc.edu.hk/earnlearn/html/en/.
(The Training and Support Scheme is known as “Earn and Learn Scheme” on the VTC’s website.)
The Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund (SPEF) launched a new category under its Quality Enhancement Support Scheme in January 2016 to support IA projects that aim to increase students' employability by sourcing more internship opportunities for post-secondary students or enhancing relevant institutional support for students. To encourage institutions to explore more initiatives to support students on IA, the scope of IA projects has been expanded since the 2019/20 round of application on a pilot basis such that institutions may submit proposals for IA projects to be undertaken outside Hong Kong. In addition, starting from the 2020/21 round of application, the scheme also encourages proposals from institutions that incorporate quality assured work-based learning and assessment in their vocational and professional education and training programmes through close partnership with industries.
SSSDP was launched as a new initiative under the 2014 Policy Address to subsidise about 1 000 students per cohort starting from the 2015/16 academic year to pursue designated full-time locally-accredited self-financing undergraduate programmes in selected disciplines.
As announced in the 2017 Policy Address, SSSDP has been regularised from the 2018/19 academic year with an increase number of subsidised places in undergraduate programmes from about 1 000 per cohort to about 3 000 per cohort. The scope of the SSSDP has been expanded with effect from the 2019/20 academic year to subsidise about 2 000 students per cohort to pursue designated full-time locally accredited self-financing sub-degree programmes in selected disciplines.
SSSDP has been enhanced from the 2023/24 academic year to, among others, cover top-up degree programmes, as announced in the 2022 Policy Address. Moreover, starting from the 2024/25 academic year, an additional annual subsidy will be provided to full-time local students enroling in designated applied degree programmes under the SSSDP that have undergone the relevant quality assurance process.
For details, please refer to the relevant website: https://www.cspe.edu.hk/en/sssdp/sssdp.html.
BSPP is a non-traditional learning platform. Through BSPP, the Education Bureau (EDB), in collaboration with different business corporations, government departments and community organisations, has been providing secondary students with diversified career exploration activities, including career talks, workplace visits, workshops and work experience opportunities with a view to equipping them with knowledge and information about different industries so that they can better understand the workplace develop positive work attitudes and get well prepared for further studies or career pursuits.
The EDB has implemented the initiative of the 2022 Policy Address. In the 2022/23 school year, the EDB further promoted co-operation between business sectors and schools, launched BSPP 2.0 with more business partners covering more industries (including emerging industries), to widen students' exposure and enhance life planning. A series of Holiday Work Experience Programmes were arranged during major school holidays to enable senior secondary students to gain first-hand experience of the actual operation of different industries as well as exploring their interests and career aspirations.
The EDB will continue promoting the BSPP 2.0. Apart from maintaining liaison with major chambers of commerce, professional bodies, the Industry Training Advisory Committees under the Qualifications Framework (including emerging industries) as well as small and medium enterprises to encourage more organisations to join the programme so as to provide more and a wider range of career exploration and work experience activities for students to help them gain more understanding of the real workplace.
For details, please refer to the website of BSPP: https://careerguidance.edb.hkedcity.net/en/home.
The Government is fully committed to the development of the Qualifications Framework (QF) in supporting lifelong learning which is conducive to enhancing capability and competitiveness of the local workforce. It was announced in the 2014 Policy Address to establish a dedicated fund of $1 billion, namely the QF Fund, to provide a steady source of income to support the sustainable development and implementation of QF. Established on 1 September 2014, the QF Fund is an endowment fund to support different schemes/initiatives for the sustainable development and implementation of QF, including but not limited to the following two areas:
- Designated Support Schemes for QF (incorporated the previous "Qualifications Framework Support Schemes" with some operating parameters relaxed); and
- Funding for industry training advisory committees (ITACs), QF-related studies or projects and public education.
The Government further injected $1.2 billion into the QF Fund in March 2018 for the continued implementation of various initiatives under the QF.
The Steering Committee on Promotion of VPET and QF is established on 1 September 2020. In addition to the functions of the previous Steering Committee on QF Fund, the current Steering Committee will advise SED on the overall strategy to promote VPET, and the development, implementation, and promotion of QF to support a qualifications system for VPET.
For details, please refer to the relevant website: https://www.hkqf.gov.hk/en/home.
At the senior secondary level, students’ understanding of VPET is enhanced through a variety of learning opportunities, including Applied Learning (ApL) courses, the career-related experiences embedded in Other Learning Experiences (OLE) activities, and other subjects.
ApL is a valued senior secondary elective subject under Category B of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination. It complements subjects under Category A (subjects under the Key Learning Areas) and Category C (Other Languages) to form a flexible subject combination that helps enrich students' subject choices and cater for learner diversity, providing broad and balanced learning experiences for students. ApL focuses on practical learning elements linked to broad vocational and professional fields with dual emphasis on theory and practice. It develops students' knowledge, generic skills, proper values and attitudes through providing simulated or authentic contexts, preparing them for further studies and career pursuits in future. Although ApL is not pre-vocational or vocational training, it can enhance students' understanding of VPET.
In addition to the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education qualification, students who have successfully completed ApL courses that are registered in the Qualifications Register (as certificate programmes at Qualifications Framework (QF) Level 3) will also obtain QF certificates issued by the course providers. Applied Learning Chinese (for non-Chinese speaking students (ApL(C)) is pegged at QF Level 1 to Level 3, and Applied Learning (Vocational English) (ApL(VocE)) is pegged at QF Level 2 to Level 3. Students taking ApL(C)/ApL(VocE) will obtain the respective QF certificate(s) issued by the course providers upon meeting the assessment and attendance requirements of different QF levels of the courses.
Students in public sector schools and schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme studying the local senior secondary curriculum are fully subsidised for taking ApL courses. In general each eligible student is entitled to funding for a maximum of two ApL courses (excluding ApL(C)) throughout his/her studies at the senior secondary level.
For details, please refer to the relevant website: www.edb.gov.hk/apl/en.
To encourage the public to pursue continuing education, the Government has implemented the Pilot Subsidy Scheme for Students of Professional Part-time Programmes (the Pilot Scheme) to provide tuition fee subsidy for a total of 5 600 working adults in 3 cohorts from the 2016/17 academic year admitted to designated part-time programmes offered by the VTC in the disciplines of construction, engineering and technology. The amount of subsidy is 60% of the tuition fee capped at $45,000 per person. Starting from the 2019/20 academic year, the Government has continued implementing the Pilot Scheme with an additional funding of $234 million. In addition to programmes that belong to the aforementioned categories, the scope of the Pilot Scheme has been expanded to cover 2 500 practitioners in the creative industry programmes, with the amount of subsidy capped at $36,000 per person.
The Government announced in the 2022-23 Budget to extend the Pilot Scheme for two years and further expand the Scheme for five years as announced in the 2024-25 Budget in order to benefit more students and conduct a more comprehensive review on the effectiveness of these schemes.
For details, please refer to the Vplus Engineering website or Vplus Creative Industries website.
(The Pilot Subsidy Scheme for Students of Professional Part-time Programmes is known as “Vplus Subsidy Scheme” in the VTC’s website, and is further divided into “Vplus Engineering” and “Vplus Creative Industries” according to the discipline.)