IVE student of Higher Diploma in Child Care and Education awarded scholarship,
turning destiny on its head through perseverance

Humble beginnings notwithstanding, one can achieve a turnaround in life through conscientiousness. IVE student of Higher Diploma in Child Care and Education Janet LUK led a life of poverty since her parents divorced from an early age. When everyone was busy joining interest classes or outbound tours, her only extracurricular activity and pastime was reading in the library. Exactly because of this, Janet specially treasured the opportunity to learn. Even when she was small she vowed to teach, bent on helping more people to change their fate through knowledge. Recently, Janet was awarded the Dr Ng Tat-lun Memorial Outstanding Students Award conferred by Vocational Training Council (VTC) for her excellent performance. She will proceed to take up the top-up Bachelor of Arts (Early Childhood Education) programme offered by The Chinese University of Hong Kong.        
 
Happiness is actually so simple
Influenced by her upbringing, Janet was shy. But she never gives up her chance to study and makes every effort to put what has been left to her to good use: “Say when my fellow schoolmates toured Japan and Korea, I could only borrow travel books from the library and travel with “my eyes”. I grabbed every opportunity and available resource to learn.”   
 
Fortunately, Janet received a lot of support and encouragement from her teachers. Gradually she came to realise that every person has his or her own strengths and began to gain confidence. She recalled, “IVE teachers provided me with numerous occasions to play to my best. I have been the master of ceremonies for departmental seminars and workshops, and a participant in overseas exchange tours. They time and again exhorted us with ‘Opportunity comes to those who are prepared.’ This has in fact become one of my life mottos. Back in my secondary school years, teachers encouraged me to join different activities like debates. By taking up different roles, I understood that I have the ability to take on important tasks. I began by missing many precious opportunities simply because I was not confident enough and I had to keep reminding myself that I should firmly grasp every chance coming my way in the future.”   
 
When she was studying in secondary school, Janet once volunteered in an impoverished village in the mountains. There was only one school in the area and students of different ages attended the same class. Janet pointed out, “Despite the unsatisfactory learning environment, the children were eager to learn and never complained. Their dream was so simple. They would be content when somebody visited and played with them. I grew to understand better what child education really meant and the important role of a child education worker, which further encourage me to be a teacher.” 
 
Internship helps pave way into preschool sector
After sitting for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination in 2017, Janet proactively planned for her future. She passed up a bachelor’s degree place offered by a university for the IVE Higher Diploma in Child Care and Education programme. She hoped to gain more practical experience though a balanced mix of theory and practice for her future career in childhood education.
 
An internship was arranged for Janet in a kindergarten during her IVE study. “I was assigned to the post of class teacher of 30 students. At the outset, the pace of the lesson and the need to maintain order proved to be most difficult. I kept reminding myself to stay alert and vigilant to ensure that the children were learning in a safe and happy environment. I was coached by the IVE teacher and kindergarten class teacher to try out fun ways to motivate children to learn. Gradually I grasped the techniques after repeated practice.” Janet found the internship useful for her future career as she understood better the preschool sector and was able to grasp the skills required to teach children.     
 
Internship also deepened her awareness of child education. “In the world of a preschool child, the teacher will be their next point of contact other than their parents, and thus plays a most important role. Apart from teaching by words, we are their role models in behaviour as well. Seeing its significance, my sense of duty to be a good child education worker is buttressed.”
 
Janet will graduate from IVE this year and is about to obtain the qualification of a registered kindergarten teacher. To add value to her credentials, she decided to further her study and was offered a place by The Chinese University of Hong Kong in the Bachelor of Arts (Early Childhood Education) top-up programme. Janet aims to be a lecturer of training providers in child education in future to pass on good ideas for the benefit of preschool children. This will be after she has accumulated working experience and studied in a master’s programme or attained even higher qualifications.