ENG-1998 — Page 203

EDUCATION

Hong Kong Teachers' Centre

The Hong Kong Teachers' Centre, set up in 1989 to promote professionalism and a sense of unity among teachers, is supervised by a widely represented advisory management committee. It is staffed by the Education Department. During the year, the centre published newsletters and hosted 700 activities for 50 000 participants. Another centre was set up in Kowloon and began to provide services in October 1995.

Council on Professional Conduct in Education

The council, set up by the Education Department in 1994, is a non-statutory body to advise the Director of Education on promoting professional conduct in education. It draws up operational criteria defining the conduct expected of an educator and advises, where necessary, on cases of disputes or alleged professional misconduct. It has 21 elected members from schools and educational organisations and three members nominated by the Director of Education. It aims to enhance the image and professionalism of teachers and to attract more high-calibre young people into the teaching profession.

Vocational Education and Technical Training

A comprehensive system of vocational education and technical training provides the economy with well-trained manpower at craft, technician and higher technician levels. Publicly funded courses are provided by the Vocational Training Council (VTC) (see Vocational Training Council below) at two technical colleges, seven technical institutes and 24 training centres. Separate levy-funded authorities provide industrial training for the clothing and construction industries.

Vocational Education

Vocational education at higher technician level is provided by the VTC's two technical colleges at Chai Wan and Tsing Yi. These offer higher diploma (three years full-time or two years part-time), higher certificate (two or three years part-time) and associateship (two years part-time) courses in applied science, business administration, computing, statistics and mathematics, construction, design, electrical and communications engineering, electronic engineering, hotel, catering and tourism management, information systems and technology, manufacturing engineering/ engineering management and mechanical engineering.

Short courses are also offered to people in employment. In July, 1 548 full-time, 525 part-time day and 2 034 part-time evening students graduated from the technical colleges. In November, enrolment totalled 5 522 full-time students on 33 courses, and 1 360 day release and 7 976 evening students on 55 part-time courses.

The seven technical institutes provide technician- and craft-level courses in accounting, applied science, child care, China business studies, clothing technology, commercial studies, computing, construction, design, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, hairdressing, hotel-keeping and tourism, manufacturing engineering, marine engineering, mechanical engineering, motor vehicle engineering, printing and textiles. Technician-level courses are offered for Secondary 5 leavers while craft-level courses are for those who have completed at least Secondary 3. These courses are offered on either a full-time, part-time day-release, or part-time evening basis.

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