Teachers trained to give students IT training
30 - 04 - 2002

Some 230 secondary school teachers are better equipped to give their students professional information technology (IT) training in extra-curricular activities after they have completed a government IT training programme.

The teachers have taken part in the "Train-the-trainer Programme" which was jointly organised by the Information Technology Services Department and the Education Department (ED) in collaboration with a number of world-renowned IT companies.

It was aimed at helping students gain early exposure to the use of IT and acquire state-of-the-art IT skills.

A "train-the-trainer" approach was adopted in the programme in which the teachers were provided with professional IT knowledge by the IT companies.

After completing the training, the teachers will then give IT training to students who have participated in the programme through various extra-curricular activities.

Some 8 000 students at secondary level from about 90 schools will benefit from this programme.

Having successfully completed the training programme, the teachers were presented with graduation certificates in a ceremony held today (April 30).

Speaking at the ceremony today, the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Alan Wong Chi-kong, said, "Nurturing IT talents for the development of Hong Kong's information economy is one of the key result areas of the Government's Digital 21 IT Strategy."

"With this strategy, the Government aims at developing Hong Kong as a leading e-business community and global digital city.

"The Government has implemented a series of immediate and longer term measures to cope with the demand for IT talents, and the 'Train-the-trainer Programme' is one of them," he said.

The professional training programme includes courses on Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP and Visual Basic provided by Microsoft; Cisco Certified Network Associate courses by CISCO Systems and the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Hong Kong; web publishing courses by Adobe Systems Incorporated and Pacific Century CyberWorks; and courses on A+ and Network+ jointly provided by CompTIA, Infocan Training Limited and CPCNet Hong Kong Limited.

The programme held this year is its second round. The first round of the "Train-the-Trainer Programme" was launched in mid-2001 by the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau in conjunction with the ED and three IT companies.

About 280 teachers and 4 000 students from more than 80 schools were attracted to join the first round of the programme.

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