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A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong
dates. Also, with the introduction of the Apprenticeship Act and the Designated Trades Act, part-time day-release courses built up rapidly.
But in those days, although useful as guides, there was a tendency to put too much faith in the Government Labour Department manpower surveys. For example, if a survey showed that 129 tool and die makers were required, some planners seemed to believe that this exact number could be trained in a technical institute, and, from then on, it was just a question of slotting them into vacancies when they completed their course. Insufficient thought was often given to broad-based technical education to suit the rapid pace of change. After all, Hong Kong now has little manufacturing.
But retracing our steps yet again back to the latter half of the 1960s, a proposal was made that the old Technical College should be upgraded to become a Polytechnic. This proposal really emanated from Britain in the wake of the Polytechnic Act which had then been introduced there. Not everyone agreed with the proposal. Some would have preferred that the Technical College in Hong Kong remained as such and a new polytechnic be built on an entirely new campus.
What happened is now history. The Technical College was upgraded to Polytechnic status in 1972 and, during the 1970s, in spite of some growing pains, the rate of expansion has been equalled in few parts of the world. Today the Polytechnic University, as it became in 1994, is one of the best examples you can find anywhere of ‘academic drift', starting life as a humble trade school. It has much to be proud of.
Final Thoughts
In recent months, especially since the Handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, education - including technical education - has been under the microscope. Today it is fashionable to denigrate Hong Kong's past education