如何支援學生、學系及社會？ - Industrial Centre - The Hong Kong ...

Message from the new DirectorEducation and training.<strong>The</strong> history of the IC has been one of continual success, with many accoladesand an excellent reputation both within PolyU, Pearl River Delta and Internationalrecognition of its achievements. <strong>The</strong> IC can with valid justification point to itscontributions to the training of young engineers, and to its projects and researchcarried out for local Industries.So the only problem, it would seem, is to continue this excellent record and toseek improvement to our services.What obstacles stand in our way from maintaining this high standard? Ironicallya problem that has not been addressed fully, even though it seems to be a simpleone, is to get the message across to departments and senior management whatit is that the IC does for PolyU. <strong>The</strong> problem may be one of senior academic’sperception of education versus training.Morley Safer an American 60 minutes commentator once said “you don’t goto university to learn how to do something, you go there to get an education”.That sentence is at the heart of the past and future problems of establishmentsworldwide attempting to give high quality <strong>Industrial</strong> Training. You will find thesentiment echoed by some senior academics in the education system, in <strong>Hong</strong><strong>Kong</strong> and abroad, but perhaps more so in the US.However I have to say that I know from factual experience that this sentimentis fundamentally misplaced, when applied to the engineering discipline. Astudent’s understanding of the engineering processes is directly linked to his/her exposure and practical experience of taking part in that process. This canbe best summed up by the simple statement “only by doing can someone reallyunderstand”. This does not mean that academic knowledge is not required,rather that there should be a balance between practical training and academicteaching.So one of our aims for the near future is to cooperate more with PolyU engineeringdepartments, and to get the message across to them as to how important andfundamental, technical training is to a young engineer’s development. Hencewe aim to maintain our current levels of training, and continue to provide anexcellent service to PolyU and the local Universities of <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.Dr Stephen O’BrienDirector, <strong>Industrial</strong> <strong>Centre</strong>工 業 中 心 總 監 區 柏 賢 博 士4 IC Newsletter