Enhancing creative design competencies through integrated learning experiences: vocational and professional education and training in Hong Kong

Throughout my years working in the higher education sector in Hong Kong, I have developed multiple roles as a teacher, mentor, designer, administrator and researcher, to keep abreast of both academia and the industry. My professional practice in design education and leadership skills has been shaped by various kinds of scholarly activities in response to the changing demands from various stakeholders (students, scholars, educators, design practitioners and entrepreneurs) and from the academic institutions I have served from 1993 to present (13 years with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Vocational Training Council since 2006). Through active participation in a wide range of Institutional strategic initiatives and collaborative projects, I have gained deeper insight of both the academic and design fields, and acquired additional knowledge and networks to make a significant leap forward This has allowed me to inspire and inform different stakeholders towards best practice in vocational and professional education and training (VPET). These internal and external collaborations offered me the most updated perspectives of local, regional and global demand, as well as expectations of design education, enabling and enhancing my ability to adapt to the changing needs of the design community by thinking globally and acting locally. From my early years in teaching and through required role changes to include administrative and academic management extending substantially my internal and external networks. My accumulated knowledge and experiences have evolved into a number of impactful public works, with significant serendipitous outcomes as a linking thread to different learning means, including curriculum design, educational guidelines and standards, learning centre development, teachers’ training (Figure 1).

While witnessing the emergent design market flourish with burgeoning design talents and exciting events in Hong Kong over the last decade, COVID-19 has disrupted us in an unprecedented manner. The post-virus economy, contextually, has redefined our workplace, jobs, and our lives; challenges are implicit and explicit to the role of design education. This critical engagement with my public work, which I have entitled ‘Enhancing Creative Design Competencies through Integrated Learning Experiences: Vocational and Professional Education and Training in Hong Kong’, surfaces and contributes to how we could promote the synergy of the diversities of academic disciplines and the industry, while maximizing resources and imparting intellectual flexibilities, ultimately aiming to develop a powerful model to resolve the on-going challenges in the academic sector, and to respond to the ever-changing market needs. I believe that the previous scholarly activities I have led or participated in are implicitly correlated, resulting in a strong snowball effect on my personal growth and the contribution to the academic and design industry. To sustain and improve these academic strategies in the context of changing local and global events, it is important to validate my own experience, unfold the complex thinking, drivers and values, and systematically translate these attributes to enhance professional practices by critical exploration of each piece of public work, so as to provide a mirror experience to my co-workers This effort can constitute a foundation for the creation of future initiatives. The ultimate goals are to renew and redefine the pedagogical approach by enhancing teachers’ entrepreneurial teaching competences, understanding of their work role and its implication to future design education; to develop local and international network building skills to foster industry partnerships, academic exchanges and collaborations in the context of design research and practices, social innovation, design solutions and services. Further, it is a driver to manage and implement academic strategic plans, projects and collaborations through specific knowledge exchange platforms.