Background: In the early 1980s, the author of this article researched, in her M.Ed thesis, the state of adult education in Hong Kong with regard to its general support and delivery through university channels. At that time, adult education had a separate identity and, since, has generally become vocationalized, creditized or subsumed into postsecondary education and part-time higher education. Dr. Shak's recent book to be published: Lifelong Education: Consensus in Characteristics and Practices (2008), describes what adult education has evolved into globally. In this article, her research of the 1980s is revisited and considered in contemporary context.
Aims: The study explored a training programme for adult educators in universities in Hong Kong. Administrative arrangements, including funding, staffing, the provision of facilities, and a curriculum were of key focus. Interviewees were immersed in the adult education of their era.
Method: An examination of administrative arrangements and development of curriculum was done based on a needs assessment model. Identification of problems was based on literature internationally, and questionnaires and interviews with respect to relative stakeholders.
Results: Findings were that, for adult education, universities were ideal for training administrators and specialists who could, in turn, provide part-time in-service training for volunteers and part-time teachers. Further, an appropriate curriculum was devised.
Conclusion: Dr. Shak's research of some 25 years ago yielded seven recommendations, all of which--of interest--now characterize (in some form) not only education in Hong Kong, but also continuing education and lifelong education globally today. This article provides information that highlights the historical, conceptual, and empirical development of adult education and its derivatives that point the way to the future.
背景：早在20世紀80年代，在她的碩士論文裡，作者已經研究了在香港通過大學的管道為成年人教育提供支持和幫助的狀況。那時，成人教育已經成 一種另類的個體

This paper describes a research project investigating the workplace learning experience of information technology (IT) workers in Hong Kong. The research project explored in depth the workplace learning experiences of 65 IT workers from three different work sites. It went beyond the identification of workplace learning methods and resources workers used at work by probing into the complexities of workplace learning processes and the theoretical issues of workplace learning. A qualitative approach was used, relying primarily on data collected via in-depth interviews. This paper reports that (1). IT workers found troubleshooting, project work and installation of hardware and software, the most likely contexts to produce significant learning; and that (2). the rapid pace of technological growth in the IT industry results in a different learning environment to traditional industries such as tailoring, thus raising questions about the applicability of the notion of the community of practice as proposed by Lave and Wenger. Furthermore, by probing into the processes of known workplace learning methods such as learning from colleagues and vendors, this study uncovered many interesting findings about the workplace learning experience of IT workers.
[Copyright of Studies in Continuing Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01580370802097728 ]

In order to build a knowledge‐based society and meet the needs of lifelong education, open learning opportunities are growing at exponential rates. While such growth is commendable, there appears to be a very strong demand for distance guidance services in open education programme selection. The purpose of this study was to develop the online self‐directed inventory, the Academic Programme Preference Instrument (APPI), for the lifelong learners in Hong Kong. The methods of questionnaire survey and standardized psychological measurement were employed. In this study, 2775 respondents were surveyed in order to identify and verify the inventory, using a multistage stratified cluster sampling technique. The inventory consists of 112 items under nine personal attribute types, namely: organizational; mechanical; scientific; sociological; mathematical; literary; musical; aesthetic; and social service. Eighty‐nine distance and continuing education professionals were invited to help to determine the most important personal attributes that a learner should possess in order to meet the minimum entry requirements of each of the 73 education programme categories that account for over 800 open education programmes in Hong Kong. The online APPI, in English and Chinese versions, has been linked to the homepage of the Hok Yau Club in Hong Kong for the public to use freely. As Hong Kong aims to foster lifelong learning in a knowledge‐based society, it is expected that the APPI can help lifelong learners to make wise open education programme selection and to enhance learners’ success in pursuing continuing education.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02601370600990952]

Because of the changing needs of society, brought about in part by workplace, family and social structures and partly by the decline of moral and ethical values, it is becoming increasingly urgent to address issues of values education at all levels of schooling. Recently there has been an increasing body of literature challenging those who teach adults at universities or other higher education institutions to incorporate values education, either directly or indirectly into the learning environments they create. This challenge extends to distance higher education, although there are many questions about how this can be done in an environment that is typically intended for independent learning with a focus on cognitive development. This paper reports the outcomes of interviews with three small groups of distance educator stakeholders at the Open University of Hong Kong, namely course co-ordinators, tutors and students, to explore their feelings and beliefs about values education being a component of their programmes. The interviews sought opinions about three broad questions: Should we take responsibility for values education in our distance education programmes? Can we take responsibility for values education in our distance education programmes? Do we take responsibility for values education in our distance education programmes? Responses suggested that, in the context of this study, we should and that it is possible to do so, particularly directly through the use of counselling and support services and indirectly through incorporating appropriate examples into course materials, but that currently not very much is being done. While the course co-ordinators and tutors were concerned that students might resent the inclusion of values education in their courses, the students themselves appeared to be more open to the suggestion.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's

Private and public organisations play a significant role in the development of entrepreneurship education. They give schools support of various kinds including the provision of seed capital and first-hand and latest information about the business sector. The fast growth of entrepreneurship education worldwide is largely due to the efforts of the private and public sectors, and Hong Kong is no exception. The major entrepreneurship training programmes that have taken place in recent years have all been organised by private and public organisations, and they have provided a large number of students with the opportunity to receive entrepreneurship education. This study surveys the major entrepreneurship education programmes offered by private and public organisations in Hong Kong, outlines their common objectives, and assesses their perceived effectiveness.
[Copyright of Journal of Vocational Education and Training is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13636820802305595]