Symposium 3 – New Learning Trend and Corporate Academies

In October 2017, CLP Power Academy was established, offering accredited professional programmes for school leavers who are working in or aspire to a career in the electrical and mechanical power industry, hence providing them with a new upward mobility career pathway while enhancing the bench-strength of the industry.


This new applied educational initiative comes at a time when Hong Kong has embarked upon major infrastructure projects while developing as a smart city, and demand for power engineering professionals is expected to soar because of increasing need for competent professionals for the infrastructure projects and other developments as well as their subsequent operation and maintenance. Such demand in professional resources could only be met by placing a stronger emphasis on Vocational and Professional Education and Training, and the critical success factor of this new educational initiative is close collaboration between the Universities/Education Institutes and the Power Industry, together with support from the HKSAR government in youth engagement.


In his presentation, Ir Poon will share the unique features and critical success factors of the Dual Master’s, Bachelor’s degree, Professional Diploma, Diploma and Certificate programmes in Power Engineering that have been launched since late 2017, which provide a new and highly visible pathway for youths to advance their career in the professional electrical and mechanical industry in Hong Kong. The latest initiates of the Academy in allowing the youths to expanding their horizon geographically and moving up the value chain will also be presented.

Factors such as COVID-19, digital disruption, changing demographics and expectations of new generation workforce have brought about a series of workforce challenges across sectors and industries. These not only impact on the attraction and retention of talents for organisations, but also on the types of skills and competencies needed in the workplace. Employers are looking for ways to develop essential skills that prepare employees for the future of work to ensure sustainability. These encompass soft skills and leadership capabilities on top of the technical skills needed to perform the job.
 In order to provide timely and integrated learning solutions to employees, learning and development functions are looking at leveraging multi-platform, self-paced and technology-driven modes to enhance learning experience. In view of the increasing adoption of virtual workplace and learning platforms, collaborative learning community has also emerged as a common way to facilitate sharing of ideas and best practices.
 Many large organisations have set up academies to drive this learning transformation and build the unique competencies as well as the desirable DNA. Using the MTR Academy as an example, it serves to build the much-needed resource pipeline and increase attraction to join the railway industry. It is a learning institute as well as a resourcing engine for MTR.

In a rapidly changing world, a question often asked by practitioners in any profession is “How do we cope with the changes?” or “How should we prepare the workforce for the future?”. In the context of training and development, the usual response is to adjust training approaches and methodologies; create contents that reflect the latest and the newest; increase training hours to update the workforce’s knowledge and skills, etc. On the surface, such a response is medicine that matches the symptoms, and should adequately tackle the challenges. Indeed, none of the above is wrong and all such measures are necessary. The question is, however, whether this is adequate.
This speaker argues that it is not. The changes sweeping across the world are not ones that happen simply in the natural course of human progress. These are disruptive changes that threaten to uproot long-held dogmas and trusted systems. Our way of life has been fundamentally changed. We are firmly in an era where the truth doesn’t matter anymore, only narratives do. Geopolitics is characterised by coercive power, where true diplomacy has limited utility. Any device, even currencies, can be weaponised for political purposes. Economics are now at the mercy of political whim rather than sound fundamentals. In this landscape, irrespective of an entity’s nature of business, workforce development must be about not only gaining an edge in the new reality but also preparing it for survival in a crisis.
Training interventions that are focused solely on knowledge and skills will enhance workforce competencies but do very little to build the necessary culture that will be critical for uniting the workforce in crises. This speaker will discuss the importance of culture building for corporate academies, the danger of token VMV statements, and some essential elements of a successful approach.