In Society 5.0, Education 5.0 enables economic development with the resolution of social problems through advanced technologies and manages technological power appropriately in terms of a humanistic perspective. Education 5.0 is a future education model aiming to encourage student ownership to form a contemporary student-participatory curriculum with teacher mentoring. While STEM education as an Education 5.0 enabler is the key to realizing Industry 5.0 to personalize and rehumanize the manufacturing process, this paper will look at the need to better align secondary STEM education with Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) initiative by transdisciplinary integration to facilitate Hong Kong better transiting to Industry 5.0. The objective is to examine the secondary STEM education development and its potential role and benefits of creating a foundation of transdisciplinary STEM secondary education in overcoming the current shortcomings of the vertical division of academic disciplines. It seeks to restore the VPET nature in the STEM scholarship and emanate from the secondary STEM curriculum renovations and transformations to tackle social and economic challenges, so the processes of STEM pedagogy will be changed significantly to adapt humanization empowerment by adjusting the methods and approaches to achieve new industrialization and help align with the call of Education 5.0 in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented challenge to global education. It has changed how many of us, especially our children, learn and gain valuable insights into parenting needs concerning online learning, and digital literacy is more important than ever. However, the digital divide and educational equity have been sharpened amidst the ongoing pandemic; people without access to Information and Communications Technologies are even more disadvantaged than before. In Hong Kong, remote learning has increased exponentially since the outbreak in early 2020, and it has been continued under the “new normal”- which students and educators need to manage and integrate technology into their everyday teaching and learning cycle. When it is specifically essential to ensure equal and inclusive access to remote learning for students, parental involvement should arouse more prominent attention. The emerging problem has been shifting from the opportunity of access to technology to digitally illiterate parents. Hence, this paper will discuss the long-lasting issue between the digital divide and education inequality in Hong Kong, and recommend bridging the digital divide should focus more on nurturing parental digital citizenship and literacy so they can appropriately facilitate the co-learning process with their children in this “new normal” era effectively. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

In Hong Kong, the revitalization of vocational education and training (VET) was best marked by the advocacy of vocational and professional education and training (VPET) starting from 2015. VPET hence is a key element in the vocationalization of secondary curriculum, which provide students with a diversified post-secondary articulation and to enhance the school-to-work transition for better employability in the future. In 2018, the Education Bureau (EDB) also launched the Vocational English Programme (VEP) Grant (EDB, 2018) at the senior secondary level to support English learning of students who might opt for a VPET development pathway, in addition to the NSS English language curriculum. Under this background, there are two main research focuses in this paper. Firstly, this paper will explore the relationship between VEP and the NSS English language curriculum and discuss the potential impact to students. Secondly, this paper will also survey other related available initiatives similar to VEP, such as the Workplace English Campaign (WEC) under the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR), to better illustrate the landscape of vocationalization of English learning in Hong Kong throughout the years. In the current body of literature, more attention has been dedicated to the use of English and the specialized genre in the professional settings from the English for specific purposes (ESP) perspective, with relatively less focus on a vocational context. Therefore, we consider it is essential to fulfill this gap considering the continuous development of VPET. This paper will report findings from interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders (e.g. teachers and students) to generate a more holistic understanding to the research focuses. We hope that the conclusion and suggestion in this paper could provide inspirations to map out the future development directions of English learning in the (pre-)vocational context. Copyright © 2019 Inaugural Conference

In 2017, the Curriculum Development Council (CDC) issued the latest secondary education curriculum guide with the highlighted theme “Learning to Learn 2+”, which introduced “Vocational English” for senior secondary level in the “Progression of VPET with Diversification” section, along with “Applied Learning as elective subject(s)” (ApL) and “Career-related Experiences in OLE”. To support this new initiative, the Education Bureau (EDB) launched a new Language Fund Project “Vocational English Programme” (VEP) Grant for schools to enrol senior secondary students on related vocational English courses, which commenced in the 2018–2019 school year. The programme aims to boost students’ confidence and interest in English learning and prepare them better for vocational education and jobs / occupations. In this new programme, each participating school can nominate about 20 students to attend courses administered by third-party course providers. From a macro-perspective, the introduction of the VEP is a step to implement vocationalization of English which complements the advocacy of Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) outlined in the latest curriculum guide. However, from a micro-perspective, the impact of VEP on the senior secondary and post-secondary level does raise some questions and concerns worth further investigation – for instance, the connection of the VEP to other VPET-related components in the “Learning to Learn 2+” curriculum; the influence of the VEP on the current senior English curriculum; and the curriculum design, accreditation and articulation of the courses. This paper discusses the potential impact of the VEP based on a thorough review of relevant policy documents and literature, together with the analysis of data from interviews with students and teachers from both secondary schools and post-secondary level institutions to triangulate their views on the VEP. The paper ends with feasible suggestions and possible implications for the vocationalization

Globally, the rise of entrepreneurial economies poses challenges to, but at the same time provides opportunities for, higher education. Universities around the world are becoming increasingly entrepreneurial, a development that can be stimulated through their graduates as the most robust source of innovative talents. In post-industrial economies with high graduate unemployment, entrepreneurship education has been touted as a potential solution to facilitate transitions from higher education to work. In the literature of higher education studies, a research gap exists concerning graduate entrepreneurship, despite an emerging body of research on graduate employment/ employability. Besides, notwithstanding the concept of entrepreneurship spirit has been attempted to incorporate in specific subjects under New Senior Secondary (NSS) academic structure, the outcome of entrepreneurship education under local education system, including higher education, still requires room for improvements. By examining the constructions of aspiration for graduate entrepreneurship, and exploring the decisive factors on entrepreneurship decision, this paper will contribute to critical studies in education on socioeconomic disparities and framings of youth aspiration through higher education, against the backdrop of deepening global inequalities. By purposive sampling, empirical case study will draw on in-depth interviews with a sample of 30 graduates embodying varying degrees of entrepreneurial aspiration and success from research-intensive universities in Hong Kong.Positive correlations between social class and entrepreneurial intentions are revealed in the business literature as entrepreneurship founded by working class students are restricted by limited resources and collaborative networks. Paradoxically, studies have also found that lower middle-class students often have the strongest desire for social mobility and perceive entrepreneurship as a desirable pathway. Employing the analytical

In recent years, the Hong Kong government has implemented a number of new policies to revitalize the development of vocational education and training (VET), such as the rebranding of VET into vocational and professional education and Training (VPET) to cover the new addition of programmes up to the degree level providing a wide variety of specialized vocational skills as well as professional knowledge. On the other hand, VPET is also widely promoted at the secondary school level as outlined in the latest “Learning to learn 2+” curriculum by the Curriculum Development Council (CDC) and the Education Bureau (EDB). The document suggests that the recognition of VPET as a possible articulation pathway could be gradually established through various activities. At the junior secondary (JS) level, career-related experiences in Life-wide learning (LWL) will be one of the main channels for students to gain initial understanding of the society and workplace. If interested, students can also continue their exploration through the diverse available options at the senior secondary level (SS), for instance the selection of Applied Learning (ApL) as elective subjects, participation in Career-relatedexperiences in Other Learning Experiences (OLE) and the enrollment to the newly launched Vocational English Programme (VEP).Although the suggested planning in the promotion of VPET at the JS and SS level looks ideal, there seems to be a lack of understanding regarding the actual impact and effectiveness of these mentioned policies to the development of VPET, especially at the SS level when students have to make a high-stake choice for their future. Therefore, it is the main aim of this study to provide a systematic and critical review on how different VPET-related policies function as a whole in the promotion of VPET. This discussion in this study will mainly based on qualitative data collected from individual interview and focus group with the key stakeholders (e.g. students and teachers

Developing generic skills is a core component of the current educational reforms in Asia in response to global demands to shift towards a knowledge-based economy in the last two decades. The study adopted a mixed approach by using a survey and interviews to find out the views of a group of students and teachers about the effects of the school curriculum on developing students' self-management and leadership skills. The findings show that learning self-management and leadership skills has been infused in the school curriculum, and is not exclusive to a particular curriculum area in Hong Kong schools.
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