The Education & Manpower Bureau is examining the mechanism through which trainees, after completing courses under the Continuing Education Fund, Skills Upgrading and Employees Retraining Schemes, can obtain qualifications recognised under the Qualifications Framework.

Speaking at the Hong Kong Q-Mark Presentation Ceremony today, Secretary for Education & Manpower Prof Arthur Li said the bureau plans to provide funding for the three schemes focusing on training courses recognised under the framework.

In future, courses offered under these schemes will have to have obtained quality assurance so that trainees would get qualifications recognised under the framework when they complete the courses.

Prof Li explained that the objective is to help individual industries develop recognised qualifications, and to build multiple learning pathways to enable individual learners to draw up their own roadmaps to pursue lifelong learning.

"Under the framework, qualifications are not confined to academic and training attainments. A Recognition of Prior Learning mechanism will be developed by individual industries to recognise employees' skills, knowledge and relevant work experience that meet the competency standards of the respective industries," said Prof Li.

New breakthrough for employees

"For employees, this is a breakthrough from the sole emphasis on academic attainments in the past. For employers, they can be clear about the competencies and training needs of their employees from the qualifications employees have obtained under the framework."

In the past year, the bureau developed the qualification framework in a number of industries. Industry Training Advisory Committees with employers', employees' and relevant professional bodies' representatives were set up to develop Industry Training Specifications for respective industries, which set out the skills and standards of competency units they require.

So far, the bureau has completed the development of competency standards and assessment criteria for four industries - hairdressing, Chinese catering, printing & publishing, and watches and clocks.

The bureau is conducting industry-wide consultations with a view to achieving consensus for the framework's establishment in the industries.

The bureau will continue to reach out to other industries during the year, to extend the framework from skill-based industries to knowledge-based ones, and from industries lacking a set of widely recognised qualifications to industries with established professional qualifications.

No plan to make framework mandatory

Prof Li stressed the bureau will not and cannot make the framework mandatory.

Instead, the bureau will promote its objective and benefits to different industries and liaise with trade associations, trade unions and professional bodies so that they can take part in the development of qualification standards for their respective industries.

He added the bureau will amend the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation Ordinance to facilitate the council's restructuring and reform so that it would be able to undertake both academic and vocational accreditation.