VTC holds Outstanding Apprentice Award Presentation
Aircraft maintenance apprentice and trainee electrical technician switch tracks to pursue their dreams

The Vocational Training Council (VTC) held its 2022 Outstanding Apprentice Award Presentation Ceremony on 31 March to celebrate the exemplary performance of 14 apprentices from a variety of professional fields, including railway transportation, aircraft engineering and gas services. Permanent Secretary for Labour and Welfare Alice LAU Yim attended the event as Guest of Honour, commending the apprentices for their professional knowledge and skills. In conjunction with the ceremony, VTC held an "Earn and Learn Day" in which ten participating employers setting up booths to introduce the Apprenticeship Scheme and explain the duties and career prospects of apprentices to aspiring students and the public. In addition, a forum enabled apprentices from different generations, backgrounds and industries to share their training experiences and insights.

Ms LAU said the Government would actively cultivate and retain local talents, including continuing to strengthen vocational and professional education and training, as outlined in the "Policy Address" released last October. The VTC's Apprenticeship Scheme had been cultivating outstanding high-skilled technical professionals in various industries for some 40 years. Since 2014/15 academic year, the Government had also commissioned VTC to implement the Pilot Training and Support Scheme, which has been regularised as the VTC Earn & Learn Scheme from 2019/20 onwards. The Earn & Learn Scheme had recruited over 600 participating employers over the years and trained over 8,700 students in a range of industries, such as engineering and technology, transportation, design, jewellery, creative industry, healthcare, and testing and certification.

Ms LAU also noted that facing the competition for talent around the world, a large number of high-skilled technical professionals would be required by Hong Kong to maintain its competitiveness. Moreover, under the nation’s continued development, she expected the students' career prospects could potentially be extended to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even beyond. She wished the trainees " equipping a skill for a bright future".

Chairman of the VTC Apprenticeship Training Board Edmond LAI Wing-kok said apprenticeship training had always been a pivotal part of Vocational and Professional Education and Training, with apprentices able to earn a stable income while learning and thus achieve a healthy work-study balance. To further promote the importance of apprenticeship training, the VTC held an "Earn and Learn Day" for the first time this year, with the aim of helping young people understand the value of this dual-track system in apprenticeship training. Apprentices could master specialised skills in the fields that most interested them. Mr LAI said the VTC would continue to co-operate with industry partners to train more outstanding technical talent and improve the professional level of the industry.

The only female awardee, YIU Tim-laam, worked as a hairstylist and surveying clerk before stumbling into the aircraft maintenance industry by chance. Her curiosity and determination led her to join the apprenticeship training of Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering to receive aircraft maintenance training while also studying for a Higher Diploma in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE), funded by her employer. She has now graduated from the Higher Diploma programme with distinction and will finish her apprenticeship training in August this year as an Aircraft Maintenance Mechanic II. Tim-laam jokingly refers to herself as a "problem girl", explaining that "when I first entered the industry, I had to learn lots of knowledge about aircraft principles and mechanical expertise. I maintained a learning attitude of constantly asking questions of my IVE teachers and company mentors. To strengthen my memory, I wrote down in details of my daily work in my notebook, including the types of aircraft, the procedures of maintenance and repair and so on in order to strive for improvement."

Tim-laam notes that women have their own advantages in a male-dominated industry. Her petite size makes it easier for her to crawl into narrow aircraft bodies to carry-out installation and disassembly work, such as replacing auxiliary power units (APUs). Her female carefulness and patience have also proved beneficial in assembling and disassembling small aircraft parts. Although most of her past three years of apprenticeship were spent under the pandemic, the aircraft maintenance work never stopped. In addition to handling regular daily maintenance of passenger aircraft, her colleagues had to face the challenges of an increase in demand for cargo aircraft. Tim-laam is now studying for an examination to obtain the HKAR-66 Aircraft Maintenance Licence in B1.1 Airframe qualification and is gradually moving towards becoming a fully-qualified aircraft engineer.

Another outstanding apprentice is CHEUNG Sai-ki, who is a participant of the Earn & Learn Scheme, and is currently working as a Technician Trainee II at the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD). Upon completion of secondary education, Sai-ki engaged himself in different types of work such as social welfare project management and event planning. However, he found the electrical and mechanical industry professional and diversified, and decided to join the industry through Technician Training Scheme offered by EMSD in 2019. He also pursued the Diploma of Vocational Education (Electrical Engineering) programme at Youth College.

"During the training period, I was responsible for assisting the maintenance of the power system in a public hospital." Sai-ki shared. "During the pandemic, there was a sudden power outage, which resulted in the negative pressure system in the isolation ward not functioning properly. My colleagues and I quickly identified the cause of the power system failure that night and worked tirelessly to repair the switchboards and activate the back-up power supplies. We successfully completed the task with minimal impact on the patients. In fact, my job is meaningful as it is safeguarding the safety of patients and healthcare workers." Sai-ki is now studying part-time for IVE's Higher Diploma in Electrical Engineering, hoping to continuously enrich his professional knowledge and contribute to the community with practical skills.

This year some 170 registered apprentices were nominated by employers for the Outstanding Apprentice Award Scheme. Eventually the judging panel selected 10 Outstanding Apprentice Award winners, plus another four to receive Sir Edward Youde Memorial Outstanding Apprentice Awards. In February this year, a study tour to Singapore was organised for the Outstanding Apprentice Award-winning apprentices. There they visited the teaching facilities of the Institute of Technical Education, including its lift engineering and Clean Energy Systems, to learn more about the local technical training and curriculum. They also visited the water purification plant and were able to experience the city's corporate culture through various corporate visits.

The VTC's "Earn and Learn Day" held concurrently with the Award Presentation Ceremony saw ten participating employers from the transportation, engineering and technology, design, logistics and healthcare industries invited to join a career expo at Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) to share information about industry development, apprentice training and manpower needs with interested students and the public. An “Upskilling and Passing the Torch” Forum was also held, in which three apprentices from different industries shared their experiences and insights as apprentices, including General Manager - Customer Installation and Enquiries of Towngas Ir LEE Kin-fai; Building Services Engineer for Gammon Construction LAU Tsz-ling; and Print and Media Design Technician for Ever Fine Printing CHU Man-yee. After completing apprenticeship training, Ir LEE is now a senior management staff in the company. This reflects the core goal of the apprenticeship scheme which was to upgrade the skills, get promoted and groom others along the way as well.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas) has been a long-standing supporter of the Apprenticeship Training Scheme. Principal of the Towngas Training Institute Sam KS LIU said Towngas launched its own Apprenticeship Training Scheme (now called the Technician Trainee Programme) in 1967, and VTC had always been its partner. Since 1987, Towngas had started hiring VTC students as apprentices. In 2018, the two parties further collaborated to launch Hong Kong's first Professional Diploma in Gas Engineering programme. Mr LIU noted that the Towngas Apprenticeship Training programme had kept pace with the times and now covered not only gas but also the mechanical and electrical fields. In addition to learning relevant theories and techniques, apprentices received training in teamwork and language skills so as to foster their all-round development. The company would arrange for experienced technical staff to work with the apprentices and follow up their progress. Many graduate apprentices had since become engineering supervisors, engineers or managers, making significant contributions to the company's operations and development.

Established in 1982, the Vocational Training Council (VTC) is the largest vocational and professional education and training provider in Hong Kong. The mission of VTC is to provide a valued choice to school leavers and working people to acquire the values, knowledge and skills for lifelong learning and enhanced employability, and also to provide support to industries for their manpower development. VTC has 13 member institutions, namely the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi), the Institute of Professional Education And Knowledge (PEAK), the School for Higher and Professional Education (SHAPE), the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE), the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI), the Hotel and Tourism Institute (HTI),  the Chinese Culinary Institute (CCI), the International Culinary Institute (ICI), the Maritime Services Training Institute (MSTI), Youth College, Pro-Act by VTC, the Integrated Vocational Development Centre (IVDC) and the Shine Skills Centre.

Website: www.vtc.edu.hk

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