2021年2月1日
Honourable guest speakers, employers, colleagues and students,
Good afternoon! Welcome to Hong Kong Baptist University’s Employers’ Luncheon 2021.
This is my first day as the President of HKBU, and the Employers’ Luncheon is certainly the highlight of the day both for me and for HKBU. We are very blessed to have the support of leading industry experts, namely Mr Eric Chan, Ms Susanna Lee, Mr Paulo Pong, and Mr Ralph Szeto. They are going to share their valuable experience and insights into how mentoring and internships can maintain a stable and efficient workforce, as well as how they have helped Generation Z develop and excel in a highly competitive and challenging employment market.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the nature of our daily activities. Many parts of our lives have moved from the real world to the virtual world. This event, Employers’ Luncheon 3.0, is a perfect example of HKBU’s innovative solutions to challenges. How can we call it a luncheon if we cannot have lunch together? Yes, we can, in a safe and healthy way! While joining this event online, I hope you all enjoy the lunch box which has incorporated the wisdom of our experts from the School of Chinese Medicine. For those employers who have agreed to lunch with our students, a student is now paired up with an employer at the latter’s office. Relax! They have taken COVID tests!
Even though we are physically apart, we are united by a common cause – we are here to help our students steer through these trying times, and let their talents contribute to our flourishing society, especially at this time of great technological progress, with automation, and the use of AI and big data changing the career landscape. And over the space of a year, we have seen the pandemic displacing old firms and business models which previously stood the test of time.
With crisis comes opportunities. Some companies, like Facebook and Twitter, allow some employees to work from home permanently. This opens the possibility of remote hiring. Who knows what comes next? May be next year, HKBU will be holding Employers’ Luncheon 4.0, an international event with employers participating all over the world! Viruses know no borders, and so do opportunities! What sets them apart is that opportunities fly across boundaries in a much more powerful way than the virus!
So how does HKBU prepare our students to embrace these new changes and opportunities?
You will see shortly how our students have prepared to show off their talents for this Employers’ Luncheon 3.0 under the guidance and advice of our teachers from the School of Communication. But more importantly, we at HKBU are preparing them to be new modes of employees, or ‘Employees 3.0.’, with attributes of:
· resilience and flexibility to thrive in this new age
· analytical thinking
· creativity, originality and initiative
· global perspective, cultural sensitivity and empathy.
These are some of the vital attributes and skills that our students will need throughout their careers and lives. And what are we doing at HKBU to help them in these areas?
Nurturing creativity is a key element in our design students’ total learning experience. Committed to delivering the best student experience, we have also been helping our students’ development with innovative pedagogies and a multitude of outside classroom learning activities in the community and across the world. One of our UGC Award winning projects leverages the use of augmented reality in developing students’ academic integrity and ethics. Our visual arts teacher also won an award on e-learning excellence with his creative online teaching module encouraging students to create artworks using materials at home.
Another core element of our education is service learning. Designed by our experts, the community experience in service learning subjects enables our students to develop a noble mind, a caring heart, a listening ear, and a safe pair of helping hands.
But at HKBU we don’t stop there, and last year we launched Project SEED, which stands for Student Engagement, Enrichment and Development, to empower our students with the essential skills for the future career world. We are pleased to have the overwhelming support of our alumni and industry partners, who offer a wide range of career training and development opportunities to help enhance students’ personal attributes and readiness for their careers after graduation.
We also launched a first-of-its-kind online platform called BUhub in November 2020 to further support our fresh graduates in terms of their career development amid the current economic downturn. This interactive platform connects our graduates with potential employers and alumni and matches mentors with mentees. If you haven’t already signed up for BUhub, please join us and meet our star talents!
These initiatives are also part of our work in helping prepare students for Employment 3.0, or new modes of employment. With the whole world weathering through storm and strife in a year, “work” and the “workplace” are redefined. We are no longer just focusing on traditional work and employment models, but will develop our students as passionate, resilient and adaptable individuals.
Together with our whole-person and liberal arts education, these initiatives will ensure that we nurture a huge diversity of talent, and we are dedicated to developing future leaders who can shape tomorrow with confidence, competence and commitment.
I hope you will enjoy the following programme, with our students from different disciplines showcasing their inspiring stories, and thank you for your participation and support to us.
Lastly, with the Chinese New Year just around the corner, I would like to wish you and your families a safe, happy and healthy Year of the Ox.
Thank you.