Thousands of Hong Kong students flock to grab last VTC diploma or degree places after receiving DSE results
Those whose grades were not good enough to get them a place at a publically-funded university braved on-the-spot interviews in the hope of getting a spot at one of 10 vocational schools
About 20,000 Hong Kong students flocked to 10 schools run by Hong Kong’s largest vocational education provider on Wednesday to seek a place, after learning that their exam grades were not good enough to get them into a publicly-funded university.
Gripping their Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) results sheets, the youngsters – several who came with their parents – braved on-the-spot interviews when applying for diploma or privately-funded degree programmes offered by the Vocational Training Council.
But VTC deputy executive director Leung Yam-shing said there was no guarantee how many would be successful.
The council had 17,000 vacancies across all programmes but more than half had already been allocated as part of conditional offers made to students.
“When demand for our courses peaked in 2015, we only had 1,000 places left to offer to these walk-in students. But competition has been less heated in recent years,” Leung acknowledged.