Education authorities have renewed their interest in vocational education and consulted various bodies on how best to pursue it. One effective way, they say, is to seek more practicum and internship opportunities for students in higher diploma programmes. Another concerns applied learning, which has taken off under the Diploma of Secondary Education ambit.
More than 300 schools are offering 30-plus subjects in that area. More can be done to extend its scope and appeal among schools and students.
At community level, the work on the Qualifications Framework (QF) has also taken root and seems to be gaining recognition from employers. In this new context, how vocational education should be reviewed and taken forward is an issue worth pondering.
Traditionally, in the Chinese psyche, there was a long-lasting tension between academic and vocational education and, by extension, between white-collar and blue-collar work.
Today in the information age, the distinction is very much blurred, as many of the blue-collar jobs also require modern knowledge and the use of information technology.