In this Sept 21, 2021 photo, visitors walk through a display of lanterns on mid-autumn festival in Hong Kong. (PETER PARKS / AFP)

A mismatch between talent and industry needs is hindering the competitiveness of Hong Kong and its youth, education analysts warned, adding that diverse and flexible progression pathways should be offered to vocational education learners.

The skills gap has weighed on employers’ choices and the appeal of Hong Kong’s talent. The city ranked 14th out of 63 regions in talent competitiveness in 2020

The gap between the talent supply from Hong Kong’s education system and the in-demand skills required by employers has widened in recent years, affecting the city’s economy and young people’s prospects, said Victor Kwok, head of education and youth at Hong Kong-based think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation. 

He said a comprehensive school-industry partnership plan is the key to bridging the skills gap.

Kwok said the reasons for the mismatch include weaknesses in the current accreditation system, such as in the Qualifications Framework in providing a flexible and transferable channel between academic and vocational credentials as well as a lack of partnerships between schools and workplaces. 

Enacted by the Legislative Council in 2007, the QF defines qualifications in the academic, vocational, and professional as well as continuing education sectors.

The continued stigma carried by vocational education is also part of the picture, added Stephen Wong, senior vice-president of Our Hong Kong Foundation and executive director of its Public Policy Institute. People still consider vocational pathways inferior to academic ones, Wong said.

“It was noticed that students' interest in pursuing VPET (vocational and professional education and training) remained at the lower end (of the scale) and there was a general misconception that VPET was considered inferior to other traditional academic articulation pathways,” a spokesperson of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Education Bureau said.

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The skills gap has weighed on employers’ choices and the appeal of Hong Kong’s talent. Around 75 percent of employers in the city had difficulties in finding talent with the rights skills in 2019, Kwok added, citing a report by ManpowerGroup, an international workforce solutions company. 

Hong Kong ranked 14th out of 63 regions in talent competitiveness in 2020. This is the third year it has trailed behind Singapore, which ranked ninth, according to the World Talent Ranking 2021 by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development.

To fix the gap and equip students with in-demand skills and career mobility, Kwok proposed enhancing the integration of academic and applied qualifications as well as an industry certificate by promoting the practice of QF. The credentials should be recognized as transferable academically and in the workplace while industry competencies and academic standards need to be better aligned with the QF, he said.

“In the current state, the QF is insufficiently flexible to allow for equal transfer and progression between academic, applied, and industry credentials, or to bridge the gap between schools and firms,” the think tank said in the Education and Youth Policy Research Report released in September.

The QF needs to be employer-led rather than academic-oriented to ensure the qualifications can be translated into tangible benefits in the workplace, improving students’ employability, Kwok said.

Kwok also proposed building a mutual recognition system for the transfer of academic and professional qualifications in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to enhance talent mobility within the region.