Academics call for stronger alignment between education and employers to improve students’ job prospects in the fast-changing technology landscape. Zeng Xinlan reports from Hong Kong.
As tens of thousands of graduates emerge from Hong Kong universities and colleges and swarm the job market each year, there’s a widening gap between what they’ve mastered in school and what employers expect of them.
This trend has been fueled by the increased demand for technology skills and an economy bruised by the pandemic. Employers are finding it hard to get the right talent, which is weighing down Hong Kong’s competitiveness and youth employment.
Academics have pinned the blame squarely on a “disconnect” between academia and industries.
“Academia has a qualification system that’s not clearly understood by companies,” said Victor Kwok Hoi-kit, head of education and youth research at Hong Kong-based think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation. “Enterprises don’t understand what the qualifications mean and whether the staff they seek can offer the help they need.”
Companies have their own qualifications framework, which is usually tied to skills, such as cloud or blockchain technology, but it’s not credited by schools, Kwok said.
According to Kwok, it’s important to unblock the channel with appropriate courses to give companies a clearer understanding of the capabilities that might be needed in the workplace.
Kwok said industry participation in some of the programs, normally, defeats the purpose of it. “From designing, reviewing, conducting and accrediting them, each part needs to be further improved,” he pointed out. He urged companies and schools to work out a comprehensive partnership to ensure that educational courses are relevant to the needs of businesses.
Closer cooperation between schools and employers can also improve students’ employability, which can be translated into tangible benefits in the workplace as companies prefer to hire people with the required skills. “Recognition of employers, especially by prominent companies, can help them look for jobs,” Kwok said.
Victor Kwok Hoi-kit, head of education and youth research at Our Hong Kong Foundation, says the Hong Kong government should set an example for private companies to adopt a qualifications framework as part of job listings. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Rebalancing talent pool
The difficulties companies face in acquiring employees with the relevant skills has dimmed the appeal of Hong Kong’s talent. About 75 percent of the city’s employers had problems in finding people with appropriate skills in 2019, according to a report by ManpowerGroup — an international workforce solutions company.
Last year, Hong Kong ranked 14th among 63 countries and regions in talent competitiveness. It was the third year the special administrative region had trailed Singapore, which ranked ninth, according to the World Talent Ranking 2020 report by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development.
The key to rebalancing the talent pool equation is to open up a transferable channel between academic, applied and professional qualifications, Kwok said.
The current accreditation system, the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework, which is designed to define the “clear and objective standards applicable to the qualifications in the academic, vocational and professional” educational sectors, is insufficiently flexible in allowing for equal transfer and progression between the three credentials, or to bridge the gap between schools and firms, Our Hong Kong Foundation said in its recent Education and Youth Policy Research report.
The qualifications in the three sectors, in design, should be of comparable weight. However, the weakness in the framework has blocked skilled workers’ progression in applying for higher academic education. For example, an electrician with a QF Level 4 qualification would have difficulty in seeking admission to a QF Level 5 bachelor’s degree program, the report said.
Enacted by the Legislative Council in 2007, the framework is a seven-level hierarchy aimed at bridging academic and industrial qualifications through a universal system. Vocational qualifications, such as certificates, diplomas, and higher diplomas, are positioned at QF Level 4, or sub-degree level. Currently, all bachelor’s degree programs in Hong Kong are pitched at QF Level 5.
Kwok said the system has to be employer-led to ensure that the qualifications can be interpreted into real benefits in the workplace. He called for more industry input in the qualification assurance process, so that industry competencies and academic standards can be better aligned with the framework.
He proposed linking academic institutions and industry players to develop dually recognized applied certifications, such as Google’s Career Certificate, to allow students to demonstrate their skillsets and find companies that might hire them.
He also urged the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government to adopt a more active approach by including the QF in hiring employees to encourage the private sector to do the same. “The government should take the lead in adopting QF levels and skill descriptions as part of its job listings, hopefully, sparking a knock-on effect of broader recognition of applied qualifications by job seekers and businesses,” the foundation’s report said.
Eyeing chances in the Greater Bay Area
Considering the vast career opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Kwok said Hong Kong should consider cross-border mutual recognition of qualifications. “Cross-border accreditation can boost talent exchange in the Greater Bay Area and open up a much broader job market for local talent,” he said in welcoming the latest Policy Address by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
The blueprint pledged to attract and train talent and build up Hong Kong’s talent pool in line with the national 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), as well as the Greater Bay Area development, through manpower planning with specific industry measures.
“The government has a key role to play in confirming and reiterating the significance of VPET (vocational and professional education and training) as a valued education pathway in addition to conventional academic pathways,” according to a review report by the SAR’s government Task Force on Promotion of VPET published in January 2020.
Hong Kong plans to invest HK$4.77 billion ($570 million) in post-secondary, vocational and professional education in the 2021-22 financial year, up 11.3 percent year-on-year, according to the government’s budget released in February.
The government has in recent years provided funds and subsidies for VPET institutions and students, the development of the QF, as well as the establishment of various statutory bodies, including the Vocational Training Council and the Employees Retraining Board. The Task Force on Promotion of VPET was set up in 2014.
Subsidized programs include the Training and Support Scheme, which was launched in 2014. It provides apprenticeship training through the VTC with a guaranteed level of subsidy. Since 2019, the TSS has increased the number of training places to 1,200 annually and raised the average monthly subsidy to $2,500 per month for each trainee.
The Employees Retraining Bureau is also offering free placement-tied training courses, with retraining allowances and placement follow-up services provided for eligible trainees, said Tommy Sin, manager for media and external affairs at the ERB — a statutory body that coordinates, funds and monitors market-driven training courses and services.
“Besides equipping trainees with industry and occupation-specific vocational skills, training on personal attributes and job search skills to strengthen their soft skills and work ethnics is part and parcel of the placement-tied training courses,” Sin said.
While the government is committed to taking VPET forward, parents and students themselves have reservations about professional education, and these should not be overlooked.
“It’s noted that students’ interest in pursuing VPET is still low, and there’s a general misconception that VPET is inferior to other traditional academic articulation pathways,” a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Education Bureau said, adding that the public’s overall perception of VPET, however, has been gradually improving over the years.
Contact the writer at xinlanzeng@chinadailyhk.com
