Press Release

Over a Hundred Tertiary Students Presented with HKHS Award
Virtual Ceremony Held for the First Time under Pandemic

The 16^th Hong Kong Housing Society Award (HKHS Award) presentation ceremony was held today (23 January).  A total of 104 students from 11 local tertiary institutions and their continuing education schools and community colleges, as well as three member institutions of the Vocational Training Council, namely the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education and the Hong Kong Design Institute, were awarded.  In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the award presentation ceremony was held in the form of a hybrid event for the first time, with live-streaming via "Housing Society Community" Facebook Fanpage, enabling awardees to share their joy with their families and friends via the online platform.

Established in 2006, the HKHS Award aims to support talent development for the housing and elderly-care industries of Hong Kong.  The HKHS Award recognises students with outstanding academic performance in related disciplines while providing financial assistance to those in need.  Each student awardee receives a scholarship or bursary of HK$8,000 and an award certificate.  Since its launch, the HKHS Award has benefitted over 1,200 students with a total sponsorship of over HK$7.7 million.

At the award presentation ceremony, HKHS Chairman Walter Chan said, "In fulfilling the social mission of serving the housing needs of Hong Kong people, we have been acting fast during the pandemic to render timely assistance to our residents and commercial tenants, while working hard in parallel to develop housing projects and nurturing the next generation.  In the same way, I hope the younger generation, like the way we did, would be able to adopt a flexible approach in embracing challenges while proactively equipping themselves to lay a strong foundation for paying back to the society."

In a bid to further connect the award recipients, the "HS Academy Alumni Club" (Alumni Club) was established in 2019 to provide a platform for facilitating the professional development of the awardees while engaging them to support the community.  Since then, the Alumni Club has organised about 30 activities and events, including leadership training, distinguished leaders sharing session, seminar on gerontechnology, as well as visits to the under-resourced elderly and residents during the pandemic serving over 4,800 beneficiaries.  The broad range of activities serves to broaden the horizon of the participants who in turn help to provide positive energy for the society with community services.  Besides, the Alumni Club Organising Committee was set up last year to groom future leaders by engaging them in the planning and organising of activities of the Alumni Club.  In addition, the Alumni Club members will be given priority for summer internship at HKHS where they will be able to gain further training and develop their potential.  

Apart from the HKHS Award, the Housing Society also granted scholarships to outstanding students of the Master of Housing Management Programme of The University of Hong Kong with the annual "Father Cronin Memorial Award", which has been running since 1994.  This year, two awardees have received a prize of HK$8,000 each in recognition of their excellent academic performance.