Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): HKIE Seminar on Continuous Education for Career Development in HK Industry

The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) – MI division, IVE, The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Institution of Mechanical Engineers – Hong Kong Branch co-organized the technical seminar named “The Roles of Continuous Education for Career Development in Hong Kong Industry with Successful Case Sharing” on 6^th Jan 2017. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organizations. Before the start of seminar, I took a photo with guest speakers.

(Left: Jimmy (MC), Mr. Vincent Fung (Director, Kin Yat Holdings), I, Dr. Jackson Tang (CEO, Petostar Technology Ltd.), Dr. YC Chau (VP, TDK), Mr. Torin WT Fung (Senior VP, HKAAST), Ir. Peter Si (Project Manager, IVE) and Ms. Fung Ka Wing (Senior Manager, QF Secretariat))

In the beginning, Dr. George Lau (Asso. Professor, OUHK) represented IET to present a welcome speech. He said continuous education was important for professionals and it was recognized by professional bodies as CPD.

After presented souvenir, we took a group photo included organizers, speakers and supporting organization representatives.

The first speaker was Ms. Fung Ka Wing (Senior Manager, Qualifications Framework Secretariat) and her topic named “The Hong Kong Qualifications Framework: A Platform for Lifelong Learning”. Her talk included “What is QF”, “Why is it relevant to continuing education and career development” and “How is it implemented”. There are 142 countries and territories developed QF in the world.

Then Ms. Fung explained HKQF was a major initiative by HKSAR Government to support lifelong learning and to enhance the quality and competitiveness of the workforce. It included Qualification Register (QR), Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT) and Specification of Competency Standards (SCS). Framework governed by Education Bureau (EDB), Qualifications Framework Secretariat (QFS) and Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ). And then Ms. Fung introduced the generic level descriptors (GLD).

Finally, she mentioned some application of SCS included HRD & HRM, Benchmarking & Recognition and Education & Training. Moreover, she explained QF Award for Learning Experience that each ITAC selected 3 awardees to receive HK$30,000 or HK$10,000 to respectively joining non-local or local learning activities relevant to the industry.

The second speaker was Ms. Fanny Tang (Senior Lecturer, OUHK; Assessment Manager, RPL Assessment Agency) and her presentation was “Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Assessment for Testing, Inspection and Certification Industry”. She said School of Science and Technology, OUHK was appointed as Assessment Agency of RPL for Testing, Inspection & Certification (TIC). The short video was played at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7ZxMHUWxB4.

Then she introduced the assessment methods included written test, interview, practical assessment and its combination. Fanny also briefed the Win-Win situation between employees and employers as follows:

Win for Employees

- Gain recognition for qualification

- Professional development and profile

- Save money compared with other training program

- Quicker qualification

Win for Employers

- Fast tracking staff through the skills recognition

- Reduction in costs of training

- Efficient in identification of ‘skills gaps’ allowing for more focused training

Mr. Torin WT Fung (Senior Vice President, Hong Kong Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology (HKAAST)) was the third speaker and his topic entitled “Continuous Learning for Business Startup”. He started his tech company since 2002 and then M&A by Taiwan listed company. After that he started his 2^nd startup company in 2011 under Science Park Incubation Scheme and graduated in 2015.

Firstly, Mr. Torin Fung briefed the different between Technology Driven and Market Demand concept. He said IP was very important eventhough you sell your product unsuccessfully, your IP may be created income from other company.

For R&D procedures, Torin said it was not as same as University R&D which mainly focused on theoretical research but startup needed application research.

After that he shared four critical factors for business startup included Finance, Innovation, Marketing and Sustainable Business. His observed many startup companies in the park and found that their distribution were Innovation ~ 60%, Finance ~ 34%, Marketing ~ 5% and Sustainable Business <1%.

So that Torin recommended the priority of critical factors to be Marketing, Innovation, Sustainable Business and Finance. He also shared some failure startup cases that were missing Marketing, Finance and Sustainability. Lastly, he concluded that startup had no ending unless you gave up. Another important point was to set the stop loss and return of investment (ROI), as well as your patent technologies.

The fourth speaker was Ir. Peter Si (Project Manager, IVE Engineering Discipline In-service Training) and he presented the topic “The roles of In-service Training for Hong Kong Industry”. In the beginning, he briefed Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) which was a member of the Vocational Training Council (VTC).

Then Ir. Peter Si introduced the “In-service Training” which provided an array of part-time training programmes to working adults to enhance their professional capabilities to meet the ever-changing needs of the engineering field. Moreover, their programme was market-oriented in part-time mode including Professional Diploma, Professional Certificate, short course and tailor made in-house corporate training programmes. The following diagram showed some examples (Left photo was BIM – Building Information Modelling which was a hot topic in construction field!)

Finally, Ir. Peter Si introduced the Engineering Training Subsidy Scheme (ETSS). The successful applicants would be refunded upto 60% of the tuition fees and the ceiling upto HK$45,000 per person!!!

The fifth speaker was Dr. CM Wong (工聯會業餘進修中心) and his topic related to National Vocational Qualification (國家職業資格).

Firstly, Dr. Wong briefed the characteristics of this kind of qualification. It was separated into Professional level and Technical level and had 151 items totally. Professional level was related to public and personal safety and Technical level was for benchmarking / reference. For more information, please visit the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China at http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/ .

Finally, Dr. Wong said the national examination had introduced into Hong Kong since 2004 and it aimed to encourage Hong Kong people working in the mainland and understand more about China.

The second part of seminar was industry sharing.

Dr. YC Chau was the sixth speaker and he shared his “Life-long Learning”. He firstly showed some statistic from Hong Kong and USA and found that the income was the function of education level and experience. Then he shared his career 3P model from Profession (就業), Professionalism (敬業) and Professional (專業).

Dr. YC Chau said you must be a tree rather than a grass. Then he told us the most terrible thing was that someone smarter / superior than you and worked harder than you! (世界上最恐怖的事是比你優秀的人比你還努力!) Therefore, you should never stop learning.

Then he shared his career path and explained the Triangle of Success “ASK” that was Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge.

Dr. YC Chau shared his “Introspection”. It was very meaningful. He also said your future would be appreciated your hard working now. Then he quoted Albert Einstein that “Once you stop learning, you start dying”. At the end, Dr. Chau concluded that Academic record was past, Position was existing but Learning ability represented Future! (學歷代表過去; 職位代表今天; 學習能力代表未來.)

Mr. Vincent Fung (Executive Director, Kin Yat Holdings) was the seventh speaker and he would like to share his story to us. He said manufacturing industry was his “Best School” for lifetime learning. Firsly, he briefed the manufacturing industry in Hong Kong in 70s. He graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic College with Diploma in PIE in late 70s. In late 80s, industry park in China established under open policy.

Then Mr. Vincent Fung briefed his Lifelong Learning Journey which led by the evolution of product and improvement of manufacturing.

Lastly, he used Bruce Lee statement as conclusion that “Learning is never cumulative; it is a movement of knowing which has no beginning and no end.”

Dr. Jackson Tang was the last speaker and his topic entitled “Continuous Learning vs Conventional Career Path Development”. He shared that his academic performance was not satisfactory during HKCEE and then joined VTC (previous called TI). Then he further studied in UK (Portsmouth) and got the first honor degree. After that he studied MPhil and PhD.