HKPC TechEd Playground Grand Opening Announces Results of “Online Survey - Nurturing Our Home-Grown STEM Talent 2022” Promoting TechEd for Full Support of Future Development of I&T in Hong Kong

(Hong Kong, 13 December 2022) The HKSAR Government and the local school sector have been actively promoting STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education in recent years to tie in with the future development blueprint for the innovation and technology (I&T) industry. To support the development of technology education (TechEd), the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) set up the new TechEd Playground to showcase the latest TechEd solutions under 6 thematic topics: Aerospace Technology, Cybersecurity, Green & Bio Technology, Robotics Engineering, Smart City and Virtual World Technology, so as to inspire teachers and students’ understanding and interest in I&T and cultivate the local I&T talent pool. Accompanied by Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC, and Mr Mohamed BUTT, Executive Director of HKPC, Ms Alice MAK, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, officiated the grand opening of HKPC TechEd Playground today.

Located at HKPC Building, TechEd Playground is supported by the Education Bureau (EDB), Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (HYAB), Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau (ITIB), Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) as well as over 80 groups and organisations from schools, youths, technology companies and public sectors. Including over 20 hottest and latest TechEd solutions and applications for education practitioners, students and parents to explore and experience first-hand, along with various activities for them to grasp the latest technology trends. HKPC welcomes the education sector, students and parents to come to TechEd Playground for visits, ideas exchange and have an up-close look at the latest technology applications.

Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC, said, “With the National 14th Five-Year Plan supporting Hong Kong to become an international I&T hub, I&T industry will set the future trend. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has emphasised science and technology as the primary productive forces, talents as the primary resource, and innovation as the primary driving force. In the recent ‘Policy Address 2022’, the Chief Executive has stated that in addition to the need to attract overseas talents, it is also important to nurture local technology talents. HKPC has spared no effort in promoting TechEd and nurturing talents. The TechEd Playground at HKPC Building will showcase new TechEd solutions in the next few months, with exhibits in metaverse, aerospace, robotics and smart city, etc., for the academic sector, students and parents to experience new interactive and interesting technologies and novel TechEd solutions. Today’s grand opening is just the beginning. Serving as the bridge between the business, I&T and education sectors, HKPC strives to promote TechEd and nurture local technology talents in various aspects, improve the knowledge and skills of teachers and students of I&T, so as to prepare and incubate more I&T talents for Hong Kong to become an international I&T hub as well as for the country.”

Ms Alice MAK, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, said, “Like the organisers, the HKSAR Government attaches great importance to youth development and encourages diversity and excellence. We hope to play the role of ‘confidant of young friends, enthusiast of youth work, and guide of young people’, so as to create more development opportunities for young people. We hope that young people will have the courage to experiment and make good use of every learning opportunity, especially in I&T, because the future contains infinite possibilities for them. The Youth Development Blueprint which is being prepared by the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau is now in full swing. Over the past few months, my colleagues and I have visited different districts to meet and exchange ideas with young people, parents, teachers, social workers and youth workers, to understand their views and expectations on how the government can help the younger generation to move upward, and to incorporate their voices in the Blueprint. The first version of the Blueprint, which will set out a series of measures to help young people move upwards, will be released soon. I sincerely hope that the Blueprint will help young people broaden their horizons, equip themselves and reap satisfying results.”#

The event also announced the results of “Online Survey - Nurturing Our Home-Grown STEM Talent 2022”, conducted by HKPC in September this year together with the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers TechEd Centre (HKFEW TechEd Centre) and the College of Professional and Continuing Education Limited of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU CPCE). Over 1,000 parents and teachers responded to the Survey, which aimed to gauge their views on the current situation and challenges in the implementation of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, explore the resources and policy support for training future talents, and analyse the effectiveness and development potential of implementing TechEd. The findings are as follows:

Parents’ opinions on the current situation of their children learning STEM (Annex I):

• 86% of parents say that STEM should start in primary school
• 79% of parents agree that STEM should be a formal school curriculum
• 75% of parents feel that resources and support at school are not sufficient or just average
• 47% of parents have not arranged their children to participate in any STEM-related activities

Current situation of STEM teachers’ implementation of TechEd (Annex I):

• 82% of STEM teachers feel their experience and knowledge in I&T are not sufficient or just average
• 80% of teachers feel that schools’ resources allocated to STEM are just average or not sufficient
• Only 29% of schools have STEM as part of the school curriculum and taught by dedicated STEM teachers
• 28% of teachers say they spend more than 40% of their time on administrative duties which increase the difficulty in executing STEM education

The survey shows that parents and educators share the same views on emerging technologies and future skills, with AI / machine learning, data analytics and cyber security being the top three. This infers that parents and teachers are positive and forward-looking about new technologies and the future, and expect students to learn and apply advanced technologies to equip for the future. (Annex II)

Based on the opinions of parents and teachers, teaching resources are not sufficient, whether it is human resources, capital, smart devices, software and hardware. Teachers think that there should be more manpower support in teaching STEM and administration duties (66%) and more “Smart Campus” facilities and equipment for teaching STEM (59%), whereas parents believe that for schools to promote STEM education, they should set up more smart facilities and equipment (58%), and provide a variety of STEM workshops (57%). (Annex II)

Ms Karen FUNG, General Manager, InnoPrenuer (SME & Startup Growth) and FutureSkills of HKPC, said, “The survey shows that both parents and teachers understand that students need to learn STEM from an early age, but there are difficulties in its implementation, including the lack of time and experience of teachers in STEM teaching, the limitations of schools to fully integrate with sufficient resources, and parents’ over-reliance on schools to provide STEM learning experience etc. As a platform for TechEd, Inno Space under HKPC is committed to promoting the concept of I&T career planning, covering the 6 TechEd thematic topics, so that students, teachers and parents have more opportunities to get in touch with the future development and manpower needs of I&T. Next year, we will partner with PolyU CPCE and HKFEW TechEd Centre to provide a variety of teacher and instructor training, to enhance teacher qualifications and enlarge the teachers pool, while promoting the concept of ‘Smart Campus’. In addition, we will co-organise parent-child workshops, STEAM camps, visits to technology companies, and parent seminars with the Committee on Home-School Cooperation to deepen students’ and parents’ understanding of the latest developments in technologies and related manpower needs. HKPC connects the I&T and education sectors to comprehensively promote TechEd, with a vision to build a TechEd ecosystem.”

The award presentation ceremony of “vHK Grand Tour” AR Design Competition, one of the activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, was also held at the event. Funded by the General Support Programme of the Innovation and Technology Fund under the ITC, the Competition is also supported by EDB, OGCIO, and a number of I&T enterprises and education organisations. It aims to encourage Hong Kong secondary academia to combine augmented reality (AR) technology with famous landmarks and buildings in Hong Kong, thus injecting the landmarks with freshness, creating their ideal Green and Smart City landscape and enhancing their sense of belonging to the city.

The Competition received excellent response, with over 500 students from 48 secondary schools participating. Teams from Chiu Chow Association Secondary School, HKSYCIA Wong Tai Shan Memorial College and Nam Wah Catholic Secondary School came first, second and third respectively. For the full list of winners and details of the Competition, please visit: https://www.vhk.hkpc.org

TechEd Playground Key Exhibition Contents

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# This is an English translation of the corresponding part of Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs’ Chinese speech

Accompanied by Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC (right), and Mr Mohamed BUTT, Executive Director of HKPC (left), Ms Alice MAK, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs (centre), officiated the grand opening of TechEd Playground today

Ms Alice MAK, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs (front row, seventh from left); Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC (front row, sixth from right); and Mr Mohamed BUTT, Executive Director of HKPC (front row, sixth from left); posed a group photo with the representatives of the supporting organisations of TechEd Playground

Accompanied by Hon Sunny TAN, Chairman of HKPC (fourth from right); Mr Mohamed BUTT, Executive Director of HKPC (second from right); and Dr Lawrence CHEUNG, Chief Innovation Officer of HKPC (first from right), Ms Alice MAK, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs (third from right), visited TechEd Playground

Ms Karen FUNG, General Manager, InnoPrenuer (SME & Startup Growth) and FutureSkills of HKPC (centre); Dr Jason CHAN, Assistant Dean (Innovation and Entrepreneurship) of College of Professional and Continuing Education Limited of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (right); and Mr Simon CHAN, Director of Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers TechEd Centre (left), released the results of “Online Survey - Nurturing Our Home-Grown STEM Talent 2022”

Group photo of winners of “vHK Grand Tour” AR Design Competition