President's Awards

In 2019, funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, CSENIE set up the Jockey Club Youth Academy for Special Educational Needs (YASEN) to respond to the global trend of, and local concern about, continuing education for persons with disabilities. In YASEN, a Chief Executive’s Community Project, SEN school leavers receive lifelong learning opportunities on the University campus to develop 21st century skills and competences beyond schools. The Education Bureau and heads of special schools highly commended and supported the initiative.

The success was multidimensional. The project taskiles included course delivery, e-learning, SEN YouTube, mentorship videos, seminars, empirical studies and resource development. The training benefitted over 3,000 participants, including the SEN youths, pre-service teachers, parents and community helpers. The concerted effort among academics and community helpers created a synergic effect in course design and delivery. The tripartite alliance of university, schools and NGOs provided a wide range of work exposure and job training for SEN youths. Some participants had job opportunities in floral shops and mask production factories. Integrating the project with career education, the team helped the participants develop 21st century skills and competences. It was evident that the learning helped unveil the students’ talent and creativity in sports, music, the arts and photography. The team gained the support of NFT platform Popsible to upload the NFT drawings of SEN youths in its ESG section. More importantly, the buddy formation of SEN youths with our pre-service teachers achieved social inclusion on the EdUHK campus. A student mentor with a major in music treasured the friendship with an autistic youth with a high piano proficiency level. The interaction helped the whole-person development of both partners.

YASEN provides equal opportunity for lifelong learning on the University campus for SEN school leavers. The mode of delivery has been widely disseminated in the local, regional and international sectors. It sheds lights on course development, teacher education and policy changes. YASEN provides a successful and sustainable model of continuing education and social inclusion for SEN school leavers.