TNAG-0177-FCO40-213-Proposed-Polytechnic-1969 — Page 99

2600224 C.S. 84

For discussion

on 1st April 1969

:

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MEMORANDUM FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

Working

XCR(69)86

Copy No...of 27

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION IN HONG KONG

Hong Kong's future needs in the field of higher education have received much attention, not only from the University Grants Committee, the Special Committee on Higher Education, the Universities and from within Government, but also on the part of industry, commerce, the professions and the press. There appears to be general agreement on the need for a considerable expansion of higher education facilities with particular emphasis on vocational studies related to the needs of commerce and industry. This memorandum puts forward proposals for the further development of higher vocational education for the consideration of Honourable Members.

The Extent of the Requirements for Higher Vocational Education

2

Those who have studied this question, including the Special Committee on Higher Education, have been reluctantly forced to conclude that it is not feasible to quantify Hong Kong's future requirements in the field of higher vocational education. It would be possible to mount a survey to arrive at some idea of the present needs of industry and commerce but the results would be of limited value if they did not include a forecast of future requirements. Allowing for the planning and construction of college buildings, any decision in 1969 to provide more facilities for higher vocational education would be unlikely to produce trained graduates before 1975, so that if a survey was to be useful it would need to be related to the probable needs of industry and commerce from 1975 onwards, but such a survey would meet with formidable, if not insuperable, difficulties. Employers in many fields of industry and commerce have little or no experience of employing trained high level manpower and cannot be relied upon to recognise even their present need for such persons. Furthermore, with an economy developing and changing as fast as Hong Kong's, it is in many cases out of the question for employers to forecast their requirements for particular categories of high level manpower several years in advance.

3

It is, however, generally acknowledged that Hong Kong does suffer from a shortfall of high level manpower, and some idea of its extent may be obtained from the 1966 Interim Report of the Special Committee on Higher Education. In this the Special Committee suggested, in line with experience in other developing countries, that by 1971 the proportion of high level manpower for the Colony as a whole might have risen to 15% of the total working population. It seemed to the Special Committee that it would be realistic to work on the basis that two-thirds of this high level manpower would in fact consist of persons having had no post-secondary education, in which case only 5% of the working population would require higher educational qualifications.

4

Using this figure of 5%, which is on the low side, the total number of qualified high level personnel in 1971 would need to be about 88,000. In 1966 the actual number was estimated at about 48,000, giving a shortfall of 40,000 to be made up over the five years from 1966 to 1971. Allowing for wastage at the rate of 3% per annum on the

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