EDUCATION
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relating to professional conduct in education. It draws up operational criteria defining the conduct expected of an educator and advises, where necessary, on cases of disputes or alleged professional misconduct. It has 22 elected members from schools and educational organisations and three-members nominated by the Director of Education.
Vocational Education and Technical Training
A comprehensive system of vocational education and technical training provides the economy with well-trained manpower at craft, technician and higher technician/technologist levels. Publicly funded courses are provided by the Vocational Training Council (VTC) (see Vocational Training Council below) at nine campuses of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) and 18 training centres. Separate levy-funded authorities provide industrial training for the clothing and construction industries.
Vocational Education
Vocational education at higher technician and technician levels is provided by nine campuses of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) of the VTC. Courses are grouped under nine disciplines Applied Science, Business Administration, Child Care, Computing and Mathematics, Construction, Design/Printing/Textile and Clothing, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hotel, Service and Tourism Studies, and Mechanical, Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering.
After a major restructuring of IVE courses, new modularised courses are offered from 1999-2000. Many Diploma and Higher Diploma courses have been put into subject groups and share a common year-one curriculum. A Diploma and Higher Diploma are awarded after two and three years of full-time post-Secondary 5 study respectively. Part-time courses are modularised on a 2 + 2 + 2 years structure for the award of Certificate, Higher Certificate and Higher Diploma respectively. In the 2000-2001 academic year, 1 789 graduates were full-time, 687 part-time day and 2 451 part-time evening at higher-technician level and 5 927 full-time, 974 part-time day and 4 469 part-time evening at technician level. In November 2001, the IVE's enrolment for 2001-02 at technician and higher-technician level was 22 589 full-time, 3 233 part-time day and 18 604 part-time evening. At the craft level, the IVE continues to offer courses in various disciplines to students who have completed Secondary 3 education. The number of craft-level graduates in 2000-01 was 455 full- time, 1863 part-time day and 950 part-time evening. The enrolment of craft-level students in the IVE in November for 2001-02 courses was 1 602 full-time, 4 619 part-time day and 3 454 part-time evening.
The VTC continues to run the Foundation Diploma and the Certificate in Vocational Studies for Secondary 5 and Secondary 3 school leavers, respectively. Both courses place special emphasis on language and communication, numeracy and IT application, with a view to enhancing the employability of graduates, as well as providing them with an alternative route to further education. The two courses together provide 4 420 year-one places in 2001-02.
In response to the Government's new initiative to increase the provision of post- secondary education for senior secondary school leavers from 30 per cent to 60 per cent of the relevant age groups within 10 years, the VTC has set up in 2001 a new