Gov’t committed to boosting education

December 4, 2018

Financial Secretary Paul Chan

The Vocational Training Council has since 1982 provided education and training for more than 200,000 students each year, giving Hong Kong youth the professional skills and knowledge for meeting the changing needs of our economy and the industries and businesses that drive it. 

 

Thanks to the VTC's efforts, 21,000 young men and women are graduating on this good day. Some 18,000 of them were full-time students. And they come from seven of the VTC's 13 member institutions.

 

May I also take this opportunity to congratulate that, just a month ago, the VTC officially opened its brand-new, state-of-the-art International Culinary Institute. Designed for some 2,000 students, the new Culinary Institute includes training kitchens and a training café, a wine forum, a hall of gastronomy, a sensory lab for food science education and much more. 

 

As the VTC marches on to nurture more of our youth, it has the Government's firm support. The current-term Government is fully committed to investing in education and manpower development. We believe this is essential to economic growth, social mobility and overall prosperity - for Hong Kong and for each and every one of you.

 

This Government has already introduced a variety of measures to boost education at every level. For the vocational and professional education and training sector, we are increasing recurrent funding to the VTC by $100 million a year.

 

An additional sum of $234 million will be provided to the VTC to expand its Pilot Subsidy Scheme for Students of Professional Part-time Programmes.

 

More than financial resources, of course, the VTC's success is predicated on its professionalism and its tireless commitment to education, to our youth and to Hong Kong. For that, and so much more, I am truly grateful.

 

Financial Secretary Paul Chan gave these remarks at the Vocational Training Council graduation ceremony on December 4.

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