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The Education Bureau announced today (January 18) the launch of a new category under the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme (QESS) of the Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund (SPEF) for a pilot period of two years to support industrial attachment (IA) projects that aim to increase students' employability by sourcing more internship opportunities for post-secondary students or enhancing relevant institutional support for students.
Non-profit-making education institutions offering full-time locally accredited self-financing sub-degree or bachelor's degree (including top-up degree) programmes are eligible to apply under this category. Applications are invited from now until April 15, 2016.
Project proposals will be vetted by the Sub-committee on QESS set up under the Steering Committee on SPEF. Selected proposals will be recommended to the Permanent Secretary for Education, who is the Trustee of SPEF, for funding approval.
Starting from the 2014/15 academic year, the Government has been allocating recurrent funding to the Vocational Training Council to provide IA opportunities mainly for students studying subvented Higher Diploma programmes but also for some studying certain Diploma of Vocational Education programmes. IA, which provides a real-life organisational context for students to develop specific or generic skills, can effectively enhance students' employability and allow them to better adapt to the work environment after graduation.
In July 2015, the Task Force on Promotion of Vocational Education submitted its report to the Government. One of the recommendations put forth was that the Government should extend the IA initiative to benefit students pursuing full-time locally accredited self-financing sub-degree and undergraduate programmes where applicable. The Government has announced in the 2016 Policy Address its acceptance of all the recommendations in the Task Force's report.
The QESS was launched in November 2012 as one of the major support measures to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary sector. It aims at enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in the self-financing post-secondary education sector. Before the introduction of the new category for IA, the QESS supported two project categories, namely open-ended projects and theme-based projects. Theme-based projects are normally joint initiatives developed by multiple institutions that foster closer collaboration among different institutions and benefit the sector as widely as possible.
Further details about the QESS are available at the Concourse for Self-financing Post-secondary Education at www.cspe.edu.hk/content/Overview-Measures-Fund-QESS.
Ends/Monday, January 18, 2016
Issued at HKT 14:30
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