Vocational Training Council Brand refresh

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The Vocational Training Council (VTC) is Hong Kong's largest educational group. It is the government body responsible for providing vocational education and training to meet the manpower needs of Hong Kong. As part of an eight-year strategic plan, VTC commissioned The Brand Union in Hong Kong to review and refresh its brand.

The VTC brand had a lot of strengths: it is an established and trusted Hong Kong institution. However, perceptions were outdated, with many people thinking it purely a vocational institution providing low-level skills training, apprenticeships and skills upgrades for the unemployed.

The VTC brand is regarded as caring and practical, but also bureaucratic and overly structured. In reality, VTC had grown and branched away significantly from its vocational heritage. It is now an educational organisation with an incredibly wide and varied remit, catering to learners of all ages through a portfolio of well-regarded sub-brands - but few people recognise this.

Our job was to lay the foundations for changing perceptions.

Opportunities and action

VTC’s new brand is based on a dynamic positioning that brings together two distinctive ideas that VTC owns in the Hong Kong educational space:

‘Opportunities’ - through the breadth of options VTC offers to learners of all ages

‘Action’ - that makes reference to the hands-on curriculum, teaching methods and emphasis on practical skills that are associated with all VTC group institutions.

Brand architecture

Integral to our branding work is the positioning of VTC as a vocational education, training and professional development group in Hong Kong. Within this definition, VTC becomes a parent brand with a portfolio of dynamic member institutions, such as IVE, School of Business (SBI), the Youth College, Chinese Cuisine Training Institute (CCTI), Hospitality Management Institute (HITDC), PEAK, SHAPE and the upcoming Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI). These member institutions will all bear an endorsement line that explains their relationship and clearly defines their contribution to VTC.

Transforming the visual identity

The creative theme for the design work is "transformation". The inspiration for the new VTC logomark is a prism, a beautiful object that bends and transforms beams of light. The vibrant, colourful strokes radiating from the letter “V” represent the colours of light that are emitted from the prism. It symbolises the type of positive transformation that would occur for anyone embarking on a VTC learning experience.

The new VTC visual language also reflects the brand attributes of the VTC group - Vibrant, Professional, Pro-active and Creative. This supports VTC's vision to provide leadership in vocational education, training and professional development in Hong Kong and across the region.

The new VTC brand was successfully launched on the 26 November 2006 during VTC’s 25th anniversary celebrations at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.