The planning of craft and technician education in Hong Kong 1957 to 1982

This thesis examines the planning of craft and technician education in Hong Kong, from the late 1950s, when the Technical College moved to Kowloon, to 1982, when the Department of Technical Education and Industrial Training and the Vocational Training Council were established. The study includes a review of social and industrial developments, and how they .have affected technical education, as well as how planning has been undertaken as a joint exercise involving the Government, educational establishments and industry. The two major approaches to manpower planning are then examined, namely the first system depending largely on forecasting, and the second employing flexible education and training methods combined with the substitution of labour, and reasons are given why a suitable combination of the two methods is usually selected. In addition, international developments and the methodology and techniques of manpower planning are discussed, as well as whether it can be used to stimulate economic growth. This leads to an examination of the manpower planning methods that have been employed in Hong Kong, and hew these have been "translated" into. a supply of technically educated personnel for industry, and how more thought has been given to social needs and students' aspirations in recent years. This thesis also examines the planning and problems of growth and change in technical education, with respect to accommodation and equipment, courses and curricula, and staffing. The study then demonstrates how Hong Kong has become wealthier during the period under review, and how much money has been allocated to education. An analysis is then made of how this was spent, in the case of craft and technician courses, in order to compare how costs varied from institution to institution, and from discipline to discipline. The penultimate chapter then derives various conclusions from the foregoing study and the "postscript" examines briefly the developments from 1983 to 1985.