EDUCATION
and industrialists. There is no government representation, but the committee is serviced by a secretariat staffed by civil servants.
Vocational Training Council
The Vocational Training Council was set up in 1982 and comprises 22 members appointed by the Governor. Four are official members: the Secretary for Economic Services; the Director of Education; the Commissioner for Labour, and the Director of Technical Education and Industrial Training. The council's role is to advise the Governor on measures to ensure a comprehensive system of technical education and industrial training suited to the developing needs of Hong Kong; to set up, develop and operate training schemes for training operatives, craftsmen, technicians and technologists to maintain and improve Hong Kong's industry, commerce and services, and also to establish, operate and maintain technical institutes and training centres.
Under the council are 20 training boards and seven general committees. The training boards cover all major economic sectors: accountancy; advertising; public relations and publishing; automobile; banking; building and civil engineering; clothing; electrical; electronics; hotel, catering and tourism; insurance; jewellery; journalism; machine shop and metal working; merchant navy; plastics; printing; shipbuilding, ship repair and off- shore engineering; textile; transport and physical distribution, and wholesale/retail and import/export trades. The seven general committees, which are concerned with areas of training relevant to more than one sector of the economy, deal with apprenticeship and trade testing; electronic data processing training; management and supervisory training; precision tooling training; technical education; training of technologists, and translation.
The training boards and general committees assess the future manpower needs of the economic sectors and recommend measures to meet these needs, prepare and disseminate training materials such as job specifications, training programmes and trade test guidelines and carry out other duties, such as operating and maintaining training centres or training schemes. During 1989, manpower surveys were conducted in the following 11 sectors: advertising; public relations and publishing; building and civil engineering; clothing; electrical; electronic data processing; hotel and catering; insurance; jewellery; plastics; textiles, and transport and physical distribution. The training boards and general com- mittees also continued to prepare or update job specifications, training programmes, trade test guidelines, training curricula and glossaries of common technical terms.
The council and its training boards and committees are serviced partly by its own staff and partly by staff of the Technical Education and Industrial Training Department.
Education Department
The Director of Education, supported by the Education Department, is responsible under the terms of the Education Ordinance for general supervision of education in Hong Kong at kindergarten, primary and secondary levels. He also supervises institutions registered under the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance.
He directly controls all government schools, the Colleges of Education (including the Hong Kong Technical Teachers' College) and the Institute of Language in Education. All other schools, with minor exceptions, are required to be registered under the Education Ordinance and to comply with its requirements. All schools are regularly inspected by the Education Department. Schools which receive financial assistance from the government under codes of aid are in addition subject to the provisions of these codes, which deal with matters like general administration, grants, staffing and conditions of service.
119