EDUCATION
135
apprentices. By the end of the year, 10 000 apprentices were being trained in accordance with the ordinance.
Vocational Training for the Disabled
The Technical Education and Industrial Training Department provides vocational training for disabled persons. It operates two government skills centres for the disabled and subvents another three centres operated by voluntary agencies. The total capacity of these five centres is 756 training places, of which 240 are provided with residential facilities. These skills centres offer two broad groups of courses. The first and major group prepares disabled persons for open employment while the second group prepares them for mainstream technical education. In addition to this training the department also provides three main support services for the disabled trainees in the skills centres and, in the technical institutes.
First, Vocational Assessment Section assesses a disabled person's potential and provides guidance on his career plan. A pilot five-day vocational assessment programme was also completed in 1988. Under this programme, all final year special school students who are mildly mentally handicapped were assessed prior to leaving school. The aim was to facilitate and expedite their placement process for further training or employment. The programme was a success and will become a regular service in 1989.
Second, the Technical Aids and Resource Centre designs and makes about 40 different kinds of technical aids and adaptations to standard machinery each year for disabled persons. The aim is to improve their employment prospects and training attainments.
Third, the Inspectorate Unit gives advice to skills centres on administration, curriculum development, instructional methods and training standards. It also provides guidance and counselling to disabled students in the technical institutes.
The annual employment survey of disabled students completing full-time courses at the technical institutes and skills centres showed that an increasing number was able to obtain employment on completion of their training.
During the year, construction work started for a new vocational training centre for the disabled in Tuen Mun. This new centre is scheduled to come into operation in late 1990 and will provide another 300 training places.
Teacher Preparation
Three Colleges of Education - Grantham, Northcote and Sir Robert Black - and the Hong Kong Technical Teachers' College (HKTTC) train non-graduate teachers for primary and secondary schools. All four colleges are directly financed and staffed by the government and administered by the Education Department.
The three general colleges of education conduct initial full-time teacher-education courses lasting two years for students with the required Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination qualification, and three years for students with the required Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination qualification. Part-time in-service training courses of two or three years' duration are also offered to serving kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers and to teachers of students with special educational needs; retraining courses of seven or eight weeks' duration to teachers in primary and secondary schools and part-time courses of 12 weeks' duration for serving assistant kindergarten teachers.
The HKTTC provides courses for future teachers of technical subjects in secondary and prevocational schools. A three-year full-time course is open to secondary school leavers who have studied either technical or commercial subjects. The college also offers in-service courses for teachers and lecturers in the technical institutes as well as a variety of short