PolyU partners with employers to shape tomorrow’s talents

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) hosted a luncheon today to engage over 220 local and multi-national firms from various sectors, including finance, engineering, construction, logistics, healthcare and hospitality. Themed "Partnering with Employers – Shaping Tomorrow's Talent", the Luncheon served to provide an opportunity for PolyU to connect with the current and potential employers of its graduates.

The Hon Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Chief Secretary for Administration, HKSAR Government attended the event as the Guest of Honour and delivered a speech.

"The Government has a clear vision to develop Hong Kong further into a high value-added and diversified economy. To this end, we need to develop a good mix of talents who have broad horizons, equipped with different skillsets and a solid grasp of international affairs, to sustain our competitiveness and contribute towards the diversified development of Hong Kong," Mr Cheung said.

"I am delighted to note that universities have responded positively to the Government's call for promoting innovation and technology and offered more cross-disciplinary programmes in the planning cycle, including programmes on artificial intelligence and financial technology," he said. "I am confident that PolyU's partnership with the Government and the business community will go from strength to strength, and that the graduates will excel on all fronts."

Professor Philip C. H. Chan, Interim President, PolyU also took the opportunity to share with the employers PolyU's vision in education. He said "PolyU, through the provision of a holistic education, aims to nurture future-ready graduates who are professionally competent, socially responsible, innovative and entrepreneurial."

PolyU has an unique strength in grooming specialised professionals in  more than 10 disciplines, including Aviation Engineering; Design; Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development; Fashion and Textiles; Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics; Sustainable Structural and Fire Engineering; Optometry; Occupational Therapy; Physiotherapy; Radiography; and  Transportation Systems Engineering. Many of the subjects are ranked among top 50 in the world. For instance, according to the QS University Ranking, our Civil and Structural Engineering subject is ranked 10th in world; while our Hospitality and Leisure Management subject is ranked 3rd in world. PolyU's Faculty of Business ranked 3rd in Asia and 17th in the world in 2018 KUBS Worldwide Business Research RankingsTM.

PolyU constantly develops new programmes to keep up with the times and support students map their future path. For example, BSc(Hons) in Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence will be rolling out in the academic year of 2019 to meet the upcoming needs for Fintech and AI roles such as data scientists, software engineers, and machine learning engineers, etc. PolyU's graduates are well poised to seize the opportunities in the global landscape as well as those presented by nation's initiatives along the Belt and Road and in the Greater Bay Area.

The employability of the PolyU students is well illustrated by the survey results on the destinations of PolyU graduates. About 4,000 out of the 4,671 graduates provided response to the survey. Over 83 per cent were employed / self employed by December 2017, while more than six per cent carried on their studies. Over 92 per cent of the graduates received their first job offer by end of September and the monthly salary of the graduates of some programmes could be as high as $32,000.

Dr Miranda Lou, Executive Vice President, PolyU, in her closing remarks, thanked the employers for joining hands with PolyU to nurture the rising generation. She urged the employers to continue to partner with PolyU so that its graduates could better contribute to the social and economic development of Hong Kong, as well as bringing positive changes to our society and our world.

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