- obtain industry information on career advancement
- assist in formulating their own study plans and preparing themselves to get equiped for fulfiling job requirements and personal career development
- obtain VQP qualifications through education and training or assessments
- demonstrate the ability in performing specific job positions, thereby providing more opportunities for continuous learning and career development
- make reference to the content of VQP as a blueprint for talent recruitment, performance evaluation or providing upskilling and training opportunities for employees
- use VQP qualifications as objective standards for assessing competency requirements in determining professional qualifications or license requirements
- develop VQP courses that are tailored to the specific industry and job requirements, thereby strengthening the link between learning and work
SCS sets out the skills, knowledge and competency standards required of the practitioners to perform various job functions in industries effectively. The competency standards applicable to an industry are presented as Units of Competency (UoCs) in its SCS. Every UoC includes its QF Level, Credit, Competency, Range and Assessment Criteria.
Generic skills, like industry-specific competencies, are essential to the effective performance of job functions by practitioners at the workplace. The Specification of Generic (Foundation) Competencies (SGC) developed by the Education Bureau covers four strands of generic skills: English, Chinese (including Cantonese and Putonghua), Information Technology and Numeracy. The SGC and the industry-specific SCS complement each other in the development of learning programmes relevant to industry needs.
Download Specification of Generic (Foundation) Competencies (SGC):
- English
- Chinese (including Cantonese and Putonghua) (Chinese version only)
- Information Technology
- Numeracy
Applications for SCSs
- for development of in-house training programmes, competency based job specifications, appraisal of staff performance and criteria for recruitment, etc.
- develop SCS-based courses which fit the industry needs, thereby strengthening the link between learning and work
- SCS of the differenct industries could be found in the industry specific websites at the bottom of this page
- objective standards for assessing competency requirements in determining professional qualifications or license requirements
- a basis for assessing and recognising the skills and experience acquired by practitioners under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) mechanism
- SCS-based / SGC-based courses refer to education and training programmes that adopt the SCSs or SGCs as the main basis for curriculum design.
- the structure and design of SCS-based/SGC-based courses are governed by the principles stipulated under the Qualifications Guidelines (QG) issued by the Education Bureau
The Financial Secretary announced in the 2013-14 Budget to allocate from that year on additional resources to Industry Training Advisory Committees (ITACs) set up under the QF to launch new initiatives to facilitate further development of QF in industries. Production of SCS-based Training Packages aims to encourage more enterprises and education and training providers to develop QF-recognised courses to address the training needs of industries, and to help them save on the resources needed to develop full sets of training materials.
Using selected units of competency (UoCs) which correspond with a job role in the industry, an SCS-based Training Package outlines the essential elements for a learning programme, offering for reference the contents of learning, assessment guidelines, as well as supporting and reference materials. Training Packages are SCS-based, with learning and assessment materials derived from the selected UoCs which correspond with the job role and function. The performance requirements in the UoCs are applied in the learning outcome of the Training Package, and the learning and assessment materials correspond with the learning outcome.
A Training Package exemplifies the design of course structure, and comes with suggestions on study materials such as case studies and illustrations. It contains not only the concepts, principles and application processes of the job function concerned, but also good practices that are widely adopted in the industry. Assessment materials include sample tasks or activities, methods and context of assessment, outcome standards and performance rubric that are appropriate to the contents of learning.
The contents of each Training Package are developed for the specific learner profile, mode of learning and assessment method, which can be used as reference in course designs. Enterprises and education and training providers who wish to use it as a blueprint for course development should adjust the relevant contents according to the learning objectives, target learners, entry requirements such as academic level and experience, as well as the mode of learning. For a learning programme to become QF-recognised, it must successfully pass the quality-assurance process of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications.
