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Following is a question by the Hon Ip Wai-ming and a reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (March 11):
Question:
To tie in with the implementation of Qualifications Framework (QF), the Education Bureau has so far assisted 12 industries in setting up the Industry Training Advisory Committees (ITACs), and the ITACs are to draw up Specifications of Competency Standards (SCSs) for the respective industries. Moreover, the functions of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) include assessing the qualification levels of courses related to job-specific skills. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of job-specific skills courses of various levels under QF assessed by HKCAAVQ since October 1, 2007 and, among them, the respective numbers of those which meet and do not meet SCSs of the respective industries;
(b) whether it has assessed if the existence of some courses which do not meet SCSs of the respective industries will affect the work of the ITACs of the respective industries in drawing up SCSs; if it has, of the results; if it has not, the reasons for that; and
(c) regarding the industries which have not yet drawn up SCSs, whether those courses whose levels have been assessed prior to the drawing up of SCSs will be affected (including whether these courses have to be re-assessed) when the ITACs concerned have finished drawing up SCSs; if so, of the details of the relevant arrangements; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(a) From October 1, 2007 to February 28, 2009, the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications accredited a total of 3,203 vocational training courses. Upon request of the course providers concerned, 214 of these courses were further assessed as Specification of Competency Standards (SCS)-based courses. SCS-based courses refer to those courses which, in designing the curricula and assessment criteria, have adopted SCSs of the respective industries in the majority of the course contents.
(b) Through SCSs, the Industry Training Advisory Committees (ITACs) set out clearly the skills, knowledge and outcome standards required of employees in different functional areas of the industries to facilitate design of training courses by course providers in accordance with the training needs of the respective industries. During the process of developing SCSs, ITACs will conduct extensive consultation with stakeholders in the industries, and will focus on the practical skills and knowledge required in the workplace instead of the contents of training courses. As such, the work of ITACs in developing SCSs will not be influenced by the training courses in the market.
(c) While we encourage course providers to make use of SCSs in the design of their courses, the adoption of SCSs is voluntary. Therefore, courses that have been accredited prior to the development of SCSs will not be affected by the completion of SCSs.
Ends/Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:46
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