Chapter
Ⅱ
Apprenticeship
in Korea 2020
Apprenticeship in Korea 2020
ChapterⅡ Current State 27
Chapter
Ⅱ Current State
1 Overall State 12)
1) The Trends of Companies and Apprentices
￭ The apprenticeship system had rapidly expanded after its implementation in 2013 as the policies had a quantitative goal of engaging 10,000 companies and 50,000 apprentices by 2017.
￭ The current government has set another quantitative goal of engaging 120,000 apprentices by the year 2022, however, starting from 2018, there has been efforts to change these policy goals from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement.
￭ As of September 2020, 16,222 companies have been selected among companies which had applied to participate in apprenticeship.
￭ Among these companies, 13,476 companies(101,512 apprentices) are in the middle of conducting the programs or have completed the training program.
Table 2-1 The Number of companies and apprentices(2014~2020)
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Sept. 2020
Selected Company 1,897 5,212 8,492 11,688 14,110 15,369 16,222 Training Company 752 2,816 6,207 9,228 11,217 12,652 13,476 Apprentice 3,154 14,318 34,378 57,423 76,076 91,195 101,512
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2020). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.
12) All figures in Chapter 2 are cumulative figures as of September 2018.
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2) Operation Type
￭ In Korea, as the apprenticeship system has been introduced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor since its inception, apprenticeships were originally targeted at new workers only. However, they have been expanded to include students in formal education as apprentices since 2015, as a means to diversify the program participants and promote the apprenticeships at national level.
13)As a result, the proportion of student apprentices has steadily increased since the introduction of the policy, and there are almost equal proportions of new workers and students among apprentices as of 2020.
￭ For apprenticeship for students, the proportion of apprenticeship high school programs is highest, followed by IPP, Uni-Tech, and college apprenticeship. As for the apprenticeship for new workers, the majority of apprentices and firms are participating in training center-led programs, rather than the company-led programs.
Table 2-2 The Number of companies and apprentices by operation type
Category Company Apprentice
Number Proportion Number Proportion
Total 32,608 100% 101,512 100%
Apprenticeship for students
Apprenticeship high
school 10,636 32.6%
41.9%
20,252 20.0%
26.0%
Uni-tech 683 2.1% 1,411 1.4%
College 87 0.3% 355 0.3%
IPP 2,257 6.9% 4,326 4.3%
Apprenticeship for new workers
Training center-led 15,509 47.6%
58.1% 49,310 48.5%
74.0%
Company-led 3,436 10.5% 25,858 25.5%
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2018). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.
13) Apprenticeship High Schools, Junior College level, IPP Work-Study Dual Programs
Apprenticeship in Korea 2020
ChapterⅡ Current State 29
2 Companies
1) Company Size
￭ In Korea, most of participating companies in apprenticeships are small and medium sized enterprises(SME) with less than 300 employees. Specifically, there are 15,563 companies(95.9%) with less than 300 regular employees, among which, small-sized companies with less than 50 full-time workers account for 69.8%(10,863).
￭ On the other hand, the number of large enterprises with more than 1,000 regular workers is very small(122, 0.8%).
Table 2-3 The Number of companies by company size
Category Company
Number Proportion
Total 16,222 100%
Company size (the number of
employees)
Large sized companies
More than
1,000 122
659 0.8%
4.1%
300~999 537 3.3%
Small·medium sized companies
100~299 1,950
15,563
12.0%
95.9%
50~99 2,750 17.0%
20~49 5,701 35.1%
Less than 20 5,162 31.8%
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2020). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.
2) Occupational Fields
14)￭ A high proportion of the companies is engaged in the machinery field, which accounts for 29.6%(4,794) of the total number of the participating companies.
14) Occupational fields are classified according to the NCS classification.
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￭ The following shows the number and proportion of companies in top 5 occupational fields: machinery(4,794, 29.6%), electrical·electronics(2,259, 13.9%), IT(1,981, 12.2%), management · accounting · clerical (1,907, 11.8%), and material(852, 5.3%).
Table 2-4 The Number of companies by occupational fields
Category Company
Number Proportion
Total 16,222 100%
Machinery 4,794 29.6%
Electrical·Electronics 2,259 13.9%
IT 1,981 12.2%
Management·Accounting·Clerical 1,907 11.8%
Material 852 5.3%
Chemistry 575 3.5%
Accommodation·Travel·Entertainment 544 3.4%
Construction 476 2.9%
Health care·Medical 455 2.8%
Arts·Culture·Design 453 2.8%
Food·Service 303 1.9%
Food Processing 293 1.8%
Fiber·Apparel 291 1.8%
Sales·Retail 226 1.4%
Social Welfare·Religion 215 1.3%
Printing·Wood·Furniture crafting 170 1.0%
Financial·Insurance 157 1.0%
Environment·Energy 142 0.9%
Law·Enforcement·Fire protection 52 0.3%
Agriculture·Fisheries 27 0.2%
Education·Nature 22 0.1%
Driving·Transport 15 0.1%
Security·Cleaning 9 0.1%
Project Management 4 0.0%
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2018). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.
Apprenticeship in Korea 2020
ChapterⅡ Current State 31
3 Apprentices
1) Age and Gender
￭ The proportion of young people participating in apprenticeship system is high, as it was introduced to solve youth unemployment issues and is targeted for currently enrolled students or new workers. According to the data from HRD Korea, 43,676(43.0%) of the apprentices are in their twenties and only 4,528(4.5%) of the apprentices are over 50 years old.
￭ In terms of gender, 74,827(73.7%) of the apprenticeship participants are male and only 26,685(26.3%) female apprentices are engaged in apprenticeship. This may be due to the fact that the main occupations included in the apprenticeship system are occupations with high male participation rates (ex: machinery, electrical·electronics, IT etc.).
However, the proportion of female apprentices has increased gradually each year.
Table 2-5 The Number of apprentices by age
Category Apprentice
Total 10s 20s 30s 40s over 50s
Total 101,512 31,693 43,676 14,688 6,927 4,528
Proportion 100.0% 31.2% 43.0% 14.5% 6.8% 4.5%
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2020). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.
Table 2-6 The Number of apprentices by gender
Category 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020.09
Total 3,154 14,318 34,378 57,423 76,076 91,195 101,512
Male (Proportion)
2,668 (84.6%)
11,725 (81.9%)
27,038 (78.6%)
43,849 (76.4%)
56,900 (74.8%)
67,456 (74.0%)
74,827 (73.7%) Female
(Proportion) 486 (15.4%)
2,593 (18.1%)
7,340 (21.4%)
13,574 (23.6%)
19,176 (25.2%)
23,739 (26.0%)
26,685 (26.3%)
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2020). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.
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2) Educational Attainment
￭ A high proportion of the apprenticeship participants are either specialized vocational high school/meister high school students or graduates which account for 37.1%(37,673) apprentices. The proportion of upper secondary students or graduates (53.6%) are higher than tertiary education students or graduates (41.8%).
￭ Additionally, the proportion of students or graduates of vocational education (specialized/meister high school + college, 52.8%) is higher than the students or graduates in general education(general high school + university + graduate, 42.6%).
Table 2-7 The Number of apprentices by educational attainment
Category Apprentice
Number Proportion
Total 101,512 100%
Specialized high school/ Meister high school
students or graduates 23,734
54,433 23.4%
53.6%
General high school graduates 30,699 30.2%
College students or graduates 15,917
42,420
15.7%
41.8%
University students or graduates 25,336 25.0%
Graduate school students or graduates 1,167 1.1%
Others 4,659 4.6%
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2018). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.
3) Training Period
￭ In the apprenticeships, training periods could differ by the type of programs. Among
the 101,512 apprentices, a high proportion of apprentices participated in a 12 months
training(66.9%). This is because the apprenticeship program for new workers, in which
88.4% of apprentices had participated are generally a 1 year course.
Apprenticeship in Korea 2020
ChapterⅡ Current State 33
Table 2-8 The Number of apprentices by training period
Category Apprentice
Number Proportion
Total 72,220 100%
Training period
6-11 months 1,267 1.2%
12 months 67,911 66.9%
13-24 months 28,009 27.6%
25-36 months 213 0.2%
37-47 months 1,305 1.3%
48 months 2,807 2.8%
*Source:Human Resource Development Service of Korea(HRD Korea)(September 2020). Current State of Apprenticeship in Korea.