Secondary students' IT talent on display at Sha Tin

The IT talent and creativity of Hong Kong's secondary school students are on display in an exhibition opened in Sha Tin today (December 4). The exhibition features about 100 students' projects, including webpage design, video production, image display and "Flash".

These are some of the projects produced by about 9,000 students participating in the Secondary Schools IT Training Scheme (SSITTS).

Officiating at the opening ceremony, the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, said that nurturing IT talent was one of the key initiatives of the Government's Digital 21 IT Strategy.

"The Secondary Schools IT Training Scheme can better equip our students with the necessary IT knowledge and lay a solid foundation for their academic and career development in the future.

"We hope that the success of this training scheme will encourage closer collaboration between the IT industry, the education sector and the Government to train up more IT professionals for the community, so as to help Hong Kong migrate to a knowledge economy," Mr Tsang said

Launched in September 2002, the SSITTS is jointly organised by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau, the Education and Manpower Bureau, the Hong Kong Education City, the Hong Kong Computer Society and PCCW.

The scheme provides professional IT training for Form 4 to Form 7 students to better equip them for further studies or a career in the IT field. It also provides them with basic business skills for better career development.

Under the scheme, 20 university graduates were employed as IT Trainers to provide practical training to the secondary school students through extra-curricular, project-based programmes. About 9,000 students from some 100 secondary schools have participated in the scheme.

The trainers were provided with a one-month intensive IT course, as well as basic business and teaching skills. The trainers then conducted training sessions, helped students with projects and helped participating schools improve their training curricula.

The exhibition will run until tomorrow (December 5) at Sha Tin New Town Plaza. Students will be on hand to demonstrate their IT and presentation skills.

Details of the SSITTS can be obtained from the following website: it-trainer.hkedcity.net

Thursday, December 4, 2003

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