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Besides supplying new graduates, the VTC provides training to upgrade and update in-service design personnel in its Electronic Design Technology Training Centre, the Precision Tooling Training Centre, the Plastics Industry Training Centre and the Information Technology Training Centre. In total, these centres provide 3,540 places amounting to 156,500 trainee hours.
VTC expenditure on the student and trainee places indicated above amounted to $76 million a year at 1995 prices.
Training of personnel in this field is also provided by the tertiary institutions under the University Grants Committee (UGC). In 1994-95, there were 4,310 student enrolments in programmes under the Academic Programme Category (APC) of Information Technology and Computing, at an estimated cost of $600 million. The number of students is projected to increase in the next two years, to 4,661 in 1996-97.
Apart from the expenditure on the relevant APC, there are other projects funded from the UGC's Central Allocation Vote and under the Research Grants Council's Cooperative Research Centre scheme which are related to the development and training of personnel in information technology. These projects are: the establishment of a centre of software technology facilities, a computer integrated manufacturing facility for training and teaching of information technology and other related subjects, the establishment of an institute of micro systems to facilitate the research and training in semi-conductor and micro-electronics, and Cooperative Research Centre pilot schemes in open systems technology and the application of image technology in fabric inspection. The total funding approved for these on-going projects amounts to some $46m.
To ensure that Hong Kong's needs for a comprehensive system of technical education and industrial training are being met in the light of the restructuring of Hong Kong's economy, we shall soon be undertaking a review of the system of providing technical education and vocational training. This would include the specialist areas mentioned above.
End/Thursday, November 2, 1995
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