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

How schools could play a role in facilitating youngsters’ transition from school to work or from secondary school to post-secondary institution has become an important educational issue. Against this backdrop, this chapter intends to examine the means of two different secondary schools in Hong Kong of providing support for postschool planning and how these two schools and their teachers make use of the funding from the government to strengthen their support for students’ postschool planning. The two schools under review promoted classroom-based career education programmes which operated from S1 to S6. Talks and visits to businesses, companies and local universities were also organised. However, authentic career-related learning was relatively not dominant in these two schools. The implications for promoting school’s support for postschool planning are discussed.

Demand has risen for the introduction of career education in senior secondary schooling to enhance students' transition from study to work. Against such a background, this paper aims to discuss the curriculum reforms and supporting structures in schools and to explore the challenges of life skills planning for secondary school students in China with particular reference to Hong Kong. Literature review and examples from Hong Kong and China indicate that although various Vocational (Career) Development Education and Career and Life Planning Education (CLPE) activities and school-based curriculum development take place at schools, a clear linkage between study opportunities and career choices, enhancement of learning experiences at work through activities such as job shadowing and provision of a curriculum to enhance career and life planning across years as dimensions of intervention, seem not to be found at secondary schools in Hong Kong. This paper will also look into the implications for future development of CLPE.
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