VPET Initiatives
The Pilot 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. to implement workplace assessment on a pilot basis for three years from the sane academic year for three years to improve the scheme.
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.
The Government has decided to extend the “Pilot Incentive Scheme to Employers” and the “Pilot International Study Programme” under the Training and Support Scheme for two years to 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.)
With the evidence that industrial attachment could provide a real-life organisational context for students to develop specific or generic skills and effectively enhance their employability after graduation, starting from the 2014/15 academic year, the Government has allocated recurrent funding of about $18 million to the VTC to provide industrial attachment opportunities for about 9 000 students every year mainly studying subvented higher diploma programmes and certain Diploma of Vocational Education programmes.
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 category of IA projects has been expanded from the 2019/20 round of application on a pilot basis. Under the expanded category, institutions may also submit applications on IA projects to be undertaken outside Hong Kong. In addition, 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.
It has been announced in the 2017 Policy Address that SSSDP would be regularised in the 2018/19 academic year with an increase in the number of subsidised places to about 3 000 per cohort. Current students of the eligible places of designated programmes will also receive the subsidy from the 2018/19 academic year onwards.
It has been announced in the 2018 Policy Address that starting from the 2019/20 academic year, about 2,000 students per cohort will be subsidised to pursue designated full-time locally accredited self-financing sub-degree programmes in selected disciplines. Eligible continuing local students of the designated sub-degree programmes will also receive the subsidy.
For details, please refer to the relevant website: https://www.cspe.edu.hk/en/sssdp/sssdp.html.
Starting from the 2014/15 school year, the Education Bureau has provided public sector (including special schools) schools and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools operating classes at senior secondary levels with an annual recurrent cash grant at the mid-point salary of the Graduate Master to enhance the capacity of responsible teaching team and to facilitate the co-ordination and implementation of life planning. Schools may opt for regular teaching posts instead of the grant before the 2022/23 school year in light of their own circumstances to further consolidate their experiences with more stable teaching manpower.
For details, please refer to the relevant website: https://lifeplanning.edb.gov.hk/en/school-administration/circulars.html.
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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/index.html.
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. Students at all ability levels can take ApL courses. The design principles of ApL courses are the same as those of other school subjects which aim to help students develop knowledge, skills, and positive values and attitudes. ApL offers studies with dual emphasis on practice and theory linked to broad professional and vocational fields. A flexible combination of ApL with core and elective subjects as well as OLEs helps provide theoretical and applied learning opportunities to cater for students’ diverse learning needs and to provide them with holistic learning experiences. ApL aims at enabling students to understand fundamental theories and concepts of specific industries through application and practice, and to develop generic skills and beginners’ skill set for further studies and work.
For students who have successfully completed ApL courses, in addition to the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) qualification, they will also obtain a Qualifications Framework (QF) Level 3 certificate issued by the course provider if the courses have been registered in the Qualifications Register.
Students in public sector schools and schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme studying the local senior secondary curriculum are fully subsidised for taking Applied Learning courses. Each eligible student is entitled to funding for a maximum of two ApL courses (excluding Applied Learning Chinese (for non-Chinese speaking students).
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 has decided to extend the Pilot Scheme for two years 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.)