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The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) today (July 17) outlined various education opportunities and career guidance services for secondary school leavers (See Annex 1).
An EMB spokesman said that as at today, 14 institutions will offer more than 70 self-financing sub-degree programmes, providing more than 9,000 places for Form 5 and Form 7 graduates. (For statistics on full-time accredited self-financing post-secondary programmes, see Annex 2.) These programmes will lead to qualifications like associate degrees, higher diploma, professional diploma and honours diploma.
"A list of accredited self-financing AD courses which satisfied the quality assurance requirements has been uploaded to the post-secondary programmes homepage www.postsec.edu.hk, and full-time students of these courses are eligible to apply for grants, low-interest loans, student travel subsidies and non-means tested loans," he said.
Many new subjects are being offered this year, like design, tourism, logistics, e-commerce, human resource management and visual arts.
"Students interested in these programmes are advised to browse through the list first, and they can then approach respective institutions for course details," he added.
On Project Yi Jin, the spokesman said that starting 2002/03, needy students who are eligible for full assistance under the means test administered by the Student Financial Assistance Agency will get full reimbursement of their tuition fee upon satisfactory completion of the relevant modules.
"There will also be new courses offered under the Project Yi Jin in order to cope with the developments of the society and the students' interests," he said.
"To further enrich Yi Jin students' learning experience, overseas study trips have been arranged for a total of 73 outstanding Yi Jin graduates this summer," he added.
On August 9 to 11, a joint registration cum exhibition on Project Yi Jin will be held at Hong Kong Productivity Council, Kowloon Tong.
To give secondary school leavers a better understanding on sub-degree courses and Project Yi Jin, the EMB has also organised a seminar on 'Opportunities on Further Studies for Secondary School Leavers' to be held on July 27 at City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong.
"Students and parents can visit the EMB website www.info.gov.hk/emb to download a registration form for the seminar," the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the "Careers Guidance Handbook for Secondary Five Graduates" published by the Careers and Guidance Services Section of Education Department (ED) and the Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters and Guidance Masters, and the "Handbook for Form 5 Students: In Pursuit of Job and Continuing Learning Opportunities" published by the Labour Department (LD) will be distributed to Form 5 graduates for reference starting July 20.
The electronic version of the two handbooks will also be uploaded onto the ED homepage at www.ed.gov.hk/cgs and the LD homepage at www.careers.labour.gov.hk respectively starting July 20.
To further promote opportunities on further education for secondary school leavers, the EMB has also published a booklet (Chinese only) for distribution at schools, Home Affairs Department's District Offices and ED's Regional Education Offices.
The booklet, including a list of useful Questions and Answers on Sub-degree courses and Project Yi Jin (Annex 3) and an articulation ladder diagram (Annex 4), will also be uploaded onto the EMB homepage starting July 20.
Apart from publications, ED and LD have also a comprehensive service package for Form 5 students. The package include roving exhibitions to be held between July 20 and August 3 at seven locations, talks for Form 5 students on July 30 and 31, and the setting up of advisory centres, a counselling hotline and a chat room for Form 5 students between August 5 and 10 (Annex 5).
A list of links to relevant websites has also been prepared to facilitate students to get useful information from the Internet (Annex 6).
End/ Wednesday, July 17, 2002
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