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Education
committee, which comprises key stakeholders from the industry concerned, is to draw up Specification of Competency Standards for its sector, setting out the skills, knowledge and outcome standards required of employees in the sector's different functional areas, and enabling course providers to design training programmes to meet the sector's needs. These standards provide useful guides for the development of in-house training and human resources management, such as staff recruitment and performance assessment.
The government has also developed a Recognition of Prior Learning mechanism under the QF to enable practitioners to obtain formal recognition for the knowledge, skills and experience they acquire in the workplace, and to facilitate further learning without the need to start from scratch. A government policy and principles for credit accumulation and transfer (CAT) under the framework are in place to further support learning pathways for learners. The policy and principles help education and training providers develop and refine their CAT systems. They also facilitate the recognition of a learner's assessed learning outcome and minimise the need to repeat any learning already achieved.
To support sustainable development of the framework, the government operates the QF Fund, a $1 billion endowment fund to provide a steady source of income for QF-related initiatives.
In late 2015, the government completed a Comparability Study of the HKQF and European Qualifications Framework (EQF) to enhance collaboration between the two frameworks. The report was presented to the EQF Advisory Group of the European Commission in December 2015. Three other referencing projects, with the New Zealand, Scottish and Irish QFs, are expected to end in 2017.
Quality Assurance of Post-secondary Education
Two quality assurance bodies monitor the quality of the post-secondary education sector. The HKCAAVQ is a statutory body responsible for the quality assurance of all operators and programmes except the UGC-funded universities, which enjoy self-accrediting status. The Quality Assurance Council (QAC), a semi-autonomous non-statutory body under the aegis of the UGC, conducts quality audits of the UGC-funded universities with a view to assuring the quality of all programmes at the levels of sub-degree, first degree and above (however funded) offered in the universities is sustained and improved, and is at an internationally competitive level.
The government works with the HKCAAVQ and the QAC through the Liaison Committee on Quality Assurance to identify ways to enhance and rationalise the quality assurance required for the self-financing post-secondary regime, so as to provide a stronger platform for the sector's continuous development.
Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance
This ordinance regulates non-local courses conducted in Hong Kong through a system of registration to ensure the standard of the courses and qualifications are comparable to those of their home countries. It protects Hong Kong consumers by guarding against the marketing of non-local courses which do not fulfil the registration criteria. As at the end of September 2016, 1,149 non-local courses were registered or exempted from registration under the ordinance.
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