Future Readiness for an Ever-changing Workplace

Overview

The workplace at large and the expectation of future readiness are both ever changing. This presentation will draw from the speaker’s 30-year experience in teaching and programme development in design and environment related fields, from the teaching of Qualifications Framework (QF) Level 3 certificates, QF Level 5 degrees, to QF Level 6 research post-graduate degrees (MPhil and PhD). The presentation will include elements from virtues of the centuries old ‘Renaissance Man’ perspective, then the decades old Edward de Bono’s ‘Lateral Thinking’, to the more recent ‘Design Thinking’. It will also discuss the teaching and learning paradigm that blends theory and practice, the more focused ‘learning by doing’, and the concept of ‘knowledge is action, action is knowledge’.

As a recent real-life example, the development of the concept of ‘Applied Degrees’ in Hong Kong will then be explored in more detail. The Education Bureau is launching a pilot project, which the institutions develop applied degree programmes by modifying the programme structure and curriculum of the selected current programmes. Key features of these programmes include equivalent qualifications to conventional academic degrees at QF Level 5, more flexible admission requirements, substantial work-based learning elements, and strong industry involvement in developing the widely recognised programmes. Moreover, this pilot project may be implemented in selected VPET programme areas, so as to spot out what modifications could enhance the support to the development of applied degrees. This evolution in VPET may pave the way towards a highly effective tertiary level education for the future of Hong Kong and beyond.