Learning has as much to do with what happens outside the classroom as inside. To enhance the learning experience of science and engineering students, CityU has launched a cross-border
Industrial Attachment Scheme.
Under the Scheme that will begin this summer, 151 second-year bachelor degree students in the disciplines of electronic engineering, physics, materials science and manufacturing engineering will be placed, with supervision, in 25 industrial enterprises with plants in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region.
Beginning in June, students will spend eight to nine weeks of practical training in an industrial setting so as to benefit from an early exposure to the high-tech electronics industry. Participating companies include Philips, Nokia, ASTEC, PCCW, VTech, GP, SMT, SmarTech, SAE Magnetics and other leaders in industrial and consumer electronics (For a full list of the participating companies, please click the
company profile page of the Industrial Attachment Scheme website).
In a ceremony on 7 June to celebrate the launch, CityU President Professor H K Chang hailed the scheme as an invaluable opportunity for students not
only to gain hands-on industrial experience but also to immerse themselves in a different economic and cultural milieu, which is an integral part of university education.
Understanding the mainland is increasingly becoming an asset for local engineering graduates as most of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry has moved across the border to Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan and other townships in the Pearl River Delta Region, said Professor Y C Chan of the Electronic Engineering Department, the scheme's coordinator. "The scheme helps to sharpen students' perception of today's China and awaken them to the 'threats' and 'opportunities' coming from the north," he said.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Mr Wang Feng Chao, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government of the HKSAR, said that the scheme will give students ample opportunity to discover the rapid economic
developments in southern China, where most of Hong Kong's electronics manufacturers have set up factories and R&D facilities. Mr Ng Wai Hung, Chairman of SAE Magnetics (HK) Ltd, one of the most successful Hong Kong-based electronics companies and the largest sponsor of the attachment scheme, shared his experience with the 300 guests and students present at the ceremony.
Before the attachment, students are given an intensive three-day training program organized by the
Faculty of Science and Engineering and
Student Development Services. During the attachment period, they will also receive an orientation on the company and the departments or divisions they will be working in. Joint supervision will be given by practicing engineer mentors from the companies, as well as CityU professors.
