New efforts to groom IT talents

A new pilot scheme of providing practical Information Technology (IT) training to secondary school students will be implemented in the 2002-03 academic year.

Announcing this new initiative today (September 4), a spokesman for the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau said that the training scheme will provide professional IT training to Form four to Form seven students as extra-curricular activities, with the objective of enabling the students to learn IT skills in a project-based learning environment.

"More than 7,000 secondary students will benefit from this 12-month pilot programme. We hope that the training will better prepare the students for their further study or pursing a career in the IT industry.

"At the end of the scheme, an exhibition would be held to showcase end-of-training projects of the participating students," the spokesman said.

The scheme will recruit 20 university graduates as IT trainers. They will receive an one-month intensive training course on IT and pedagogical skills.

These trainers will then be deployed to transfer their skills to students of participating secondary schools. The trainers will also provide guidance to the students to carry out practical IT projects. The recruitment exercise for the trainer has commenced and will end on September 15.

This pilot scheme is jointly organised by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau, the Education Department, PCCW, the Hong Kong Computer Society and the Hong Kong Education City.

Details of the pilot scheme and the recruitment for IT trainers can be obtained at the websites at "it-trainer.hkedcity.net" and www.hkcs.org.hk/ittrainer.doc.

Wednesday, September 4, 2002

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