Impact of a vocational-oriented course on high school students’ knowledge, attitudes, and workplace soft skills for creative industries: a three-year study

Purpose A vocationally oriented course titled Multimedia Storytelling was launched in Hong Kong's mainstream high school curriculum. This study aims to evaluate the learning outcomes of the course by comparing the career readiness of enrolled and non-enrolled students as well as their knowledge of and attitudes toward the creative industries. Design/methodology/approach Three rounds of quantitative surveys were conducted among the first cohort of 105 high school students enrolled in Multimedia Storytelling from Grades 10 to 12. The same questionnaire was administered to a group of 103 non-enrolled students from the same school and grades, using convenience sampling. Findings Multimedia Storytelling students displayed higher self-ratings in knowledge of and attitude toward creative media, life and career exploration, and workplace soft skills than non-enrolled students. Among enrolled students, those in Grade 12 reported higher self-ratings in knowledge of and attitude toward creative media, workplace soft skills, and career adaptability than those in Grade 10. Research limitations/implications The research design was a repeated cross-sectional study and therefore did not allow for longitudinal comparison for the same student across different time points. Outcome measures were based on self-evaluation. There were no data to link learning outcome measures with individual components in the curriculum. Originality/value This is the first large-scale study of vocational-oriented educational outcome measures of an Applied Learning course for creative education in Hong Kong. It provides insights into curriculum design, funding, and policymaking related to vocational-oriented education at the high school level.