In Hong Kong, aspiring and newly appointed principals are required to have a good mastery of leadership capacities for the new paradigm of education development in the 21st century. This paper aims to examine the perceptions of 188 aspiring principals on the applicability of the leadership capacities they are equipped with in the principalship training programme to their leadership positions in their schools. A questionnaire consisting of 24 questions in six core areas of leadership was constructed and mailed to the sample two years after they were awarded the Certificate for Principalship. The findings demonstrated that most of the participants perceived the leadership capacities of 'strategic direction and policy environment' and 'quality assurance and accountability' to be more applicable to their leadership positions in school than those of 'teacher professional growth and development', 'external communication and connection to the outside world', 'learning, teaching and curriculum' and 'staff and resources management'.
[Copyright © 2014 International Studies in Educational Administration (Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration & Management (CCEAM)).]