Teachers' Perception on Nurturing Students' Employability Skills: A Study on vocational course offerings in secondary schools on the topic of 'Tourism and Hospitality' and 'Fundamental Cosmetology' in Hong Kong

Historically, vocational education has borne the mission to improve the skills of young people for work and life and to remain relevant to the shifting needs of young people in school-to-work transitions. In alignment with the recent global economic changes, knowledge is now seen as a defining characteristic of valuable workers. The appropriateness of the vocational education in senior secondary schooling is questioned in the light of the changing work environment and the need in the future for knowledgeable and competent workers. In Hong Kong, curricula in vocational courses are also expected to incorporate an emphasis both on knowledge and on the development of competences in relation to that knowledge. In order to comply, Applied Learning -- with curricula providing a knowledge base and offering breadth for the development of various generic skills -- was then launched in 2003 to provide young people with diversified learning opportunities for further studies and work. Through teaching and social interaction with students, vocational teachers exercise the form of agency to influence students on the plans and decisions of school-to-work pathways. As this thesis intends to explore how employability skills are nurtured in the course of teaching, the study is focused on teachers' perceptions about nurturing students' employability skills and the appropriate teaching pedagogy to adopt for vocational education.;Although the development of vocational education in senior secondary schooling was noticeable, it was not popular and tended to attract fewer students than expected. The low academic achievers and students of less motivation comprised the majority of students. Even the low banding schools did not promote Applied Learning due to concerns about cost effectiveness. The practice of outsourcing the teaching responsibilities to external agencies caused the inconsistency of teaching standards across the course delivered. All these signified the marginalized status of vocational education in secondary schooling.;Regarding teachers' perceptions about nurturing students' employability skills, both instructors of "Fundamental Cosmetology" and school teachers of "Tourism and Hospitality" identified communication skills as the most important competence for the novice in the beauty industry, tourism and hospitality industries. There still was a demand for distinct competences for different workplaces. Cosmetologists were required to obtain a sense of responsibility with a shown desire to improve. Those who intended to work in tourism and hospitality were expected to learn how to help themselves better adapt to the changing needs of the workplace. These findings not only were construed as a basis to develop the employability skills framework in Hong Kong, but also revealed that learning basic knowledge and skills in schools played a key role in helping students to develop the above competences. Nevertheless, vocational teachers should raise their awareness of nurturing students' problem-solving skill and self-regulated learning that is the pedagogical objective of the competency-based and problem-based instructional approaches to achieve.;For understanding the teaching pedagogy of vocational education, instructors of "Fundamental Cosmetology" basically adopted the primitive apprenticeship approach to teaching and focused mainly on the practical skills of the related profession. They were experienced practitioners in the beauty industry and could frame the classroom activities and skills practices by its work culture; whereas school teachers of "Tourism and Hospitality" emphasised preparing students for achieving high grades in the public examination. They even tried to foster learning through organizing various creative, authentic activities such as a virtual enterprise programme, tour guide training and a practice programme. Students were inspired to learn knowledge, knowledge application and pay more attention to obtain competences. These findings showed that school teachers could construct the authentic school learning environment in the sense sharing a similar work culture in workplace. However, school teachers were overloaded with administration work, and diverted by those trivial and unnecessary non-teaching tasks. They needed to spare time for a more productive and effective teaching approach and for nurturing students' complex reasoning skills.;Our research indicated that teachers faced great problems in motivating the low-motivated students due to the marginalized status of vocational courses. Teachers organized the authentic activities that were used concrete problems as a context for students to learn. However, the essence of problem-based pedagogical approach emphasizes the ideals of deep, sustained and self-directed learning through exposure to authentic problems. This creates a more stimulating learning environment and cultivates in students problem solving skill and other high order thinking skills. The findings of this study show that vocational teachers need to underscore the positive results of incorporating problem-based learning into curriculum development.