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Education

Qualifications and Quality Assurance

Qualifications Framework

The Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (QF), established under the Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications Ordinance, provides a transparent and accessible platform to promote lifelong learning and help enhance the competitiveness of the workforce. It covers academic, vocational and continuing education qualifications. The QF is underpinned by a robust quality assurance mechanism. All qualifications recognised under the QF are locally accredited by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) (established under the HKCAAVQ Ordinance) or by self-accrediting institutions in Hong Kong. The government maintains a Qualifications Register, a web-based database that lists the qualifications and their associated learning programmes recognised under the QF.

As at December 2015, the government has assisted 21 industries' in setting up Industry Training Advisory Committees (ITACs) under the QF covering about 53 per cent of Hong Kong's total labour force. A major task of each ITAC, which comprises key stakeholders from the industry concerned, is to draw up Specification of Competency Standards (SCS) for its sector, setting out the skills, knowledge and outcome standards required of employees in the sector's different functional areas, and enabling course providers to design training programmes to meet the sector's needs. SCSS provide useful guides for the development of in-house training and human resources management, such as staff recruitment and performance assessment.

The government has also developed a Recognition of Prior Learning mechanism under the QF to enable practitioners to obtain formal recognition for the knowledge, skills and experience they have acquired in the workplace, and facilitate further learning without the need to start from scratch. In July 2014, the government introduced a policy and principles for credit accumulation and transfer (CAT) under the QF to further support learning pathways for learners. The policy and principles for CAT assists education and training providers in developing or refining their CAT systems. It also facilitates the recognition of a learner's assessed learning outcome and minimises the need for any repetition of learning already achieved.

To support the QF's sustainable development, the government has established the QF Fund, a $1 billion endowment fund to provide a steady source of income for QF-related initiatives.

The government has also conducted a Comparability Study of the HKQF and European Qualifications Framework (EQF) to enhance collaboration between HKQF and EQF. The report was presented to the EQF Advisory Group of the European Commission in December 2015.

Quality Assurance of Post-secondary Education

There are three quality assurance bodies in Hong Kong to monitor the quality of the post- secondary education sector. The HKCAAVQ is a statutory body responsible for the quality

1 Printing and Publishing; Watch and Clock; Catering; Beauty and Hairdressing; Property Management; Electrical and Mechanical Services; Jewellery; Information and Communications Technology; Automotive; Logistics; Banking; Import and Export; Testing, Inspection and Certification; Retail; Insurance; Manufacturing Technology (Tooling, Metals and Plastics); Elderly Care Services; Security Services; Human Resources Management; and Fashion.

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