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The Qualifications Framework (QF) is a long-term project to build manpower infrastructure, the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, said at the QF reception today (January 3).
He thanked the stakeholders of various industries and partners for their active participation and support, which had facilitated the smooth development of the QF since its implementation in 2008, and helped enhance precious human resources in a knowledge-based economy.
Mr Suen said, "As a platform to promote lifelong learning, the QF provides employees with a comprehensive network of learning pathways, thus effectively helping employees plan their own progression pathways and continuously add value to themselves."
He said that 15 industries had joined the QF, covering about 40% of the total labour force in Hong Kong. The Education Bureau was encouraging the respective sectors, professional bodies and training providers to design and organise training courses in accordance with competency standards. On the whole, learners attending these courses had given positive feedback on the courses.
Mr Suen said, "We are actively exploring with stakeholders of different industries, with a view to encouraging them to join the QF."
At the event, the Permanent Secretary for Education, Mrs Cherry Tse Ling Kit-ching, said that of the industries that had joined the QF, some industries had gradually applied the results of QF to their work, including designing training courses in accordance with the competency standards, applying them to human resources management or using them as references for performance benchmarking. Some training courses had also passed the quality assurance mechanism to become QF-recognised courses and were listed in the Qualifications Register (QR), she said.
Apart from training courses, Mrs Tse said some enterprises had applied the results of QF to human resources management, such as in designing recruitment advertisements, commending staff, formulating job descriptions, deploying manpower and making reference to industry-specific competency standards in organising internal training.
Representatives from employers, employees, trade associations, trade unions and professional bodies of various industries, quality assurance bodies, educational and training providers and institutions attended today's reception, showing their support for the QF.
To enhance public awareness and support of the QF and QR, the Education Bureau is stepping up its publicity efforts to promote QF as a quality brand name in lifelong learning. These include the production of two new series of TV and radio announcements in the public interest on the QF and the QR respectively, and dedicating an exclusive webpage to each Industry Training Advisory Committee in the QF website. The industry-specific websites aim to facilitate the sectors and members of the public to search for the latest information on education and training and the development of QF in the industry concerned.
The 15 sectors of the industry-specific websites are automotive; banking; beauty; Chinese catering; electrical and mechanical services; hairdressing; import and export; information and communications technology; jewellery; logistics; printing and publishing; property management; retail; testing, inspection and certification; and watches and clocks. The addresses of the industry-specific websites are at Annex.
Details of the QF are available at www.hkqf.gov.hk. Information on qualifications and their respective learning programmes that have been quality assured and recognised under the QF is available to the public free of charge at the QR website www.hkqr.gov.hk.
Ends/Monday, January 3, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:05
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