TNAG-0177-FCO40-213-Proposed-Polytechnic-1969 — Page 123

FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC

REVIEW

January 30, 1969 *

shop conditions at the early stages of employment.' Tech, nological expertise is not required in the routine of run- ning the Colony's industrial plants so much as for consulta tion in unusual circumstances. The Productivity Council is. now able to provide a range of consultancy services, and was able to trace a major fault in the production of Christmas tree lights last year.

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Professor Matthew Seaman of Britain's Loughborough University of Technology was recently asked to make recom mendations on the training of technologists in Hongkong. He advocated a co-operative venture between the Government, the universities and industry, with the object of gearing technolo- gist training into the pattern of industry, with Government help. His proposals are under consideration, and plans for, an extra-mural course in mechanical engineering design are. a step in the same direction. The Engineering Department of Hongkong University is keen to strengthen its rather casual relationship with industry, and Professor Gurney has expressed the Department's willingness to direct its students towards industry, and stresses the need for "people with the humility to do simple things betters".

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The By-Census further revealed that out of some 32,000 artists, draftsmen and technicians in the modern sector, 37,900 were in community service, leaving only just over 4,000 to manufacturing and other categories. Virtually the only source of qualified technicians is the Government's Technical College, which produced only 126 of them from full-time courses last year. Since the full-time enrolment capacity of the Technical College is now 1,600 or so (having jumped from only 730 in 1964), it is evident that diploma-carrying technicians are the exception rather than the rule at the technician level in industry. Moreover it is not certain that students on technician courses see themselves merely as the future generation of su-it pervisors on the factory floor. They start work for as little as $500 a month in many firms, but often in the conviction that their qualifications will soon carry them into more re- munerative posts with management status. There have been as many as 2,500 applications for four hundred places at the Technical College, and one student accounts for it like this: "We come here to get paper qualifications to get better jobs .n later on.

I failed for the University myself, and there's no-no where else."

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Technical college students study the operation of textiles machinery. This industry alone is suffering from a storage of 6,000 operatives.

clerk may earn as little as $200 a month for all his career. It is often argued that this strong preference for white- collar work militates against the provision of trainees for the factory floor, but there are strong indications that the poorer sections of the community are not so prissy about putting their children to work with their hands. A recent survey at the Chai Wan Resettlement Estate quoted 62% of the people in- terviewed as preferring their children to learn practical indus- trial skills rather than take academic secondary schooling with a view to sitting for the School Certificate Examination. The Kwun Tong Vocational Training Centre has an enrol- ment capacity of 1,020, and received 9,000 applications for places last year. Since about 15% of secondary school leavers pass only four subjects in the School Certificate Examination, (insufficient qualification for junior clerical jobs), the ap- parent preference for industrial training in resettlement areas might well be encouraged.

At present the Government runs nine Secondary Techni- cal Schools, with places for 6,200 pupils. Plans for the esta blishment of three more are in hand. The 'technical' elements of the syllabus are metalwork and woodwork for boys, secre-

Craftsman and pre-craftsman training is also provided by the Technical College, on a slightly larger scale. Theretariat skills and handicraft for girls. These practical classes are also seven-charity run vocational schools producing workers at the lower technical grades with some degree of practical industrial training. They have a total enrol- ment approaching 6,000. The overall capacity of Govern-.55 ment technical training facilities, vocational training centres and private technical schools is estimated at about 30,000. But specifically industrial training is expensive: a lathe, engaging only two students at a time, costs up to $10,000. Consequently private schools can usually afford only the non-industrial sub- jects of the technical syllabus like domestic science, shorthand, accountancy and allied office and commercial skills. The de- mand for such white-collar training is high, even though a

*provide instruction in useful hobbies, and cannot be said to qualify the students for any sort of industrial work. The schools are designed primarily for the School Certificate Examination, and their intake is made up largely of those who have failed to pass into the ordinary Secondary Gram- i mar Schools. Last summer the Secondary Technical Schools were found to have 400 empty desks. The Director of Educa- tion wrongly attributed the vacancies to the alleged bias against technical education. In fact the vacancies were mostly due to the failure of many students to keep pace with the dominant academic part of the syllabus. The Education 1.Department's continued practice of bracketing the Technical

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