External Quality Assurance (EQA) for Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) in Hong Kong and stakeholders' expectations /

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Student Theses

2020

Ma, Ka Lun Kelvin

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

External quality assurance (EQA) has expanded from the traditional academic sector to the vocational and professional education and training (VPET) sector in Hong Kong since the launch of the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (HKQF) in 2008. Since then, awareness of VPET by the whole community and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been rising. Beginning with the Chief Executive's Policy Address 2011-2012, VPET (rebranded from vocational education and training (VET) in 2016) has continuously been a standard item on the Government's policy agenda. While the Government has made efforts to promote VPET with the establishment of two task forces which made a series of recommendations to further improve the image of VPET, VPET is still considered by the major stakeholders, including learners and teachers, as an inferior choice for pursuing further study. Although EQA has been playing a crucial role in ensuring the quality of VPET providers and programmes, it is interesting to the researcher that none of the recommendations made by the two task forces are related to the EQA mechanism for VPET being implemented by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) through accreditation. Even though the accreditation system has gone through a review during 2015 to 2018, the engagement of stakeholders seemed to be limited in the sense that two major stakeholder groups, namely learners and teachers, were not identified for collection of their views by the HKCAAVQ. With the continuous development of the VPET sector reflected in the rising number of corporate academies established by different industries, such as the railway and aviation industries, seeking HKQF recognition through accreditation conducted by the HKCAAVQ, EQA for VPET in Hong Kong, covering accreditation principles, standards and approaches, deserves a systematic study of whether the major stakeholders in the community consider it effective. This study therefore seeks to make a contribution to the sustainable development of EQA for VPET in Hong Kong through exploring to what extent the major stakeholders, including public officials, VPET managers, teachers, learners and employers, consider the accreditation mechanism to be effective. To start with, the quality concepts as understood by these stakeholders are explored, given that the stakeholders' quality concepts form the backbone of any effective QA mechanism (Harvey, 2006). In view of the explorative nature of this study, a qualitative phenomenological approach has been adopted enabling the major stakeholders involved in accreditation directly or indirectly to share their deep feelings about and understanding of the effectiveness of the accreditation mechanism for VPET. While the research findings have affirmed the general effectiveness of the accreditation mechanism for VPET, a total of 26 recommendations, covering the general accreditation policies and design, accreditation principles, standards and implementation at both institutional and programme levels, have been made based on the findings. It is believed that the findings and recommendations will contribute to the further development of VPET, particularly in EQA, in Hong Kong

LG51.H44 Dr 2020eb Maklk

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/RmQ1yAhu