Inclusive Education & Employment – Business & School Partnership Award Scheme
Despite the significant number of people with disabilities (PWD) in Hong Kong, their needs and well-being are often neglected. However, PWD are entitled to respect, recognition, possibilities, and diversified lifestyles like everyone else. Career planning is a continuous and life-long process. Under the principle of integrated education, most special educational needs (SEN) students enroll in mainstream schools. They receive the same career planning service as non-SEN students despite the likelihood of needing an individualised educational plan. Recognising SEN students’ possible diverse career paths, educators are encouraged to scout the job market to provide suitable career planning for SEN students to unleash their employment potential after leaving school. Hong Kong is currently facing a shortage of talent and labour, and employers and industries are eager to come up with plans to fill job vacancies or nurture local talent. If companies can locate the talent pool in PWD, they will arrive at a win-win situation whereby they can now tackle labour shortage while PWD will have gainful employment. Moreover, riding on the increasingly popular tide of “Environment, Social and Governance” (ESG) as an indicator of corporate performance and resilience, nourishing an equal and diverse inclusive workplace culture can help the industry create social value and expand the imagination of social impact solutions. The Centre for Civil Society and Governance at The University of Hong Kong is launching the “Inclusive Education & Employment – Business & School Partnership Award Scheme,” a platform that combines resources, knowledge, and skills for representatives from the business sector and mainstream schools. It aims to facilitate the corporates to understand how diverse talents can bring value to business operations and for the education sector to know more about the job market trends. 
Target Audience From the business sector: corporate communications and sustainability, human resources, and people committed to fulfilling social responsibility.
From mainstream secondary schools: teachers responsible for life planning education and SEN supports. Main Content Knowledge Exchange Sessions: Knowledge is the basis for empathy. In these sessions, experts and experienced practitioners from different sectors will be invited to share their professional knowledge and wisdom in practising inclusive employment. You will learn more about the malleability of PWD and the benefits of business and school partnerships from multiple perspectives.
Organization Visits: Visits to PWD vocational training institutions and corporates that practice inclusive employment will be arranged. The visits will enhance participants’ understanding of PWD’s latest training curriculum and they will receive practical tips on working with PWD.
Interactive Experiential Workshops: Workshops will be hosted by PWD trained and employed by non-governmental organisations and social enterprises. Participants can interact with these diverse talents through different forms of activities, enhancing communication and understanding between you and PWD. All activities will be conducted in Cantonese, are free of charge, and run on a first-come-first-served basis.. For registration, please fill in the Application Form. For more information, please refer to the Programme Guide (Chinese version only). If you have any questions about the Scheme, please contact us at jcicp@hku.hk. Let’s achieve a sustainable and inclusive society together! Thank you.