considerable success.
Government proposes to introduce them in Hong Kong, once the prior need of technical education for industrial personnel has been satisfied.
7.6
Regarding the general character of the courses to be run by the technical institutes, the Government believes that while each course must have a predominantly vocational element, the student should not be narrowly confined in the knowledge and skills he acquires, but rather should have a broad foundation in several related subjects before he begins to specialise. Courses should be so arranged and related to each other that the student is enabled to see his own subject in a broad context of vocational opportunities.
7.7
While seeking to broaden the vocational spectrum, Government does not consider that "Liberal Studies" should be introduced as part of the regular curriculum in the technical institutes. The reception given to such courses and their development in comparable institutions elsewhere has not so far been encouraging. If introduced in Hong Kong at the present time, it is probable that students would regard them as an unnecessary diversion from their purpose in attending an institute. There would also be difficulty in finding staff capable of conducting courses of real value to the students.
7.8
One way in which courses are being broadened and flexibility enhanced is through the development of credit unit programmes of study. As well as providing the student with an improved range of choices over the courses that make up his curriculum, the credit unit system facilitates mobility between different course levels and different institutions. It enables a student who has completed successfully a "course unit" at a technical institute to move to the Polytechnic, where he will be credited with completion of that unit without need for repetition. Such "course units" may be obtained by full-time, part-time day or by evening study. While there are compulsory units in key subjects, over most of the curriculum failure in one unit will not cause failure in others. It is planned that initially this system should cover most technician programmes of study at the technical institutes and the Polytechnic and may be extended as appropriate.
7.9
The Government considers it to be valuable that the technical institutes contain commercial as well as technical courses. At present it is planned that about 13% of the total
8882