Part Ⅰ. Introduction
32
Table 2-2 ❙ Park Geun-hye government’s policy for secondary vocational education
Classification Main contents
Promote specialized high schools affiliated with relevant authorities
and industries
ㆍEstablish measures for prompting specialized high schools to cultivate manpower for industry and policy under the relevant authorities.
Expand Meister high school
ㆍExpand Meister high schools into various sectors, including national and regional strategic industries and the preparation of FTAs.
Organize and operate educational courses based on the NCS
ㆍOrganize and operate educational courses based on the NCS needed for the workplace to improve confidence in secondary vocational education.
Provide opportunities for job training to students with talent, aptitude and the
willingness to seek employment
ㆍExpand a selection system reflecting students’ talents, aptitude, and the willingness to seek employment when entering specialized high schools, expand the entrusted vocational education of general high school students who wish to find employment and diversify its fields.
Make continuous expansion of the employment of high school graduates and establish infrastructure for acquiring
college/university degrees by workers
ㆍContinuously expand performance-centered open employment, establish infrastructure for continuing education for workers, recognize work experience as a credit, and provide skilled workers with opportunities for overseas training and studying abroad.
Source: Office for Government Policy Coordination Prime Minister’s Secretariat (2013)
After the Park Geun-hye government took office, the promotion tasks for the establishment of measures for specialized secondary vocational education institutes, as well as the improvement and construction of infrastructure for Employment first- Advancement to university later included the joint plans of the relevant authorities such as the Three-Year Plan for Economic Innovation (February 25, 2014) and Youth Employment Policies (April 15, 2014). The Ministry of Education is proceeding with the reform of the national education course at the national level using the NCS in an attempt to promote specialized vocational education in high school focusing on employment. Starting from 2016, the education based on NCS will be put into practice.
The reform of the education course based on NCS will facilitate the improvement of industrial settings by education, the strengthening connection of qualifications, and the enhancement of cultivating high-quality human capital. On the policy front, it presents a task in an effort to enhance the connection with the introduction of employee performance evaluations (Jang et al., 2014). In addition, it offers another task for building the infrastructure that enables high school graduates to find a decent job and
continuously develop their skills according to the stage of their lifetime career path, including education stage-job search․employment stage-continuous service․changing jobs stage, and to study while working. The tasks provide specifically for the involvement of school, industry and the government, which makes it possible to perform School- to-Work and Work-to-School, and are focused on the improvement of education based in the workplace.
Table 2-3 ❙ Promotion tasks for Geun-hye Park government’s vocational education
Implementing tasks Main contents
Three-year plan for economic
innovation (February 25,
2014)
Establish Employment first-Advancement to university later
￭ Promote employment first through a system that enables people to study while working and by improving the synergy effect of field training.
Expand employee performance evaluation system
￭ Reform education training programs for schools and vocational institutes using the National Competency Standards (NCS). Apply the NCS to specialized high schools gradually from 2016.
￭ Reorganize the criteria for questions for national technical qualifications and qualification items from those centered on theory to those for practical and industrial settings purposes.
-- Operate new qualifications based on the NCS led by the industrial community
￭ Provide a job competency evaluation model based on the NCS and create an environment where companies hire employees without reviewing their specifications through a mentor school beyond specifications.
Youth employment
measures (April 15, 2014)
Education &
training stage
￭ Reorganize vocational education in school: provide customized education based on the demands of businesses.
￭ Expand education involving the participation of businesses: expand opportunities to experience field training at well-organized companies, promote a situation where people study while working, etc.
Job-searching &
employment stage
￭ Enhance the support system for employment: provide a youth-friendly information service.
￭ Expand the infrastructure for study later on: introduce Advancement to university later system suitable for age.
￭ Address job mismatches : create high-quality jobs, etc.
Continuous service
& changing jobs
￭ Encourage young people to continue to work in small and medium- sized enterprises: expand rewards for long-term continuous service, raise the employment support fund and expand types of businesses for support when young people are changed to regular positions.
￭ Prevent career disconnection due to military service: expand the scale of customized military specialist.
Part Ⅰ. Introduction
34
The background and meaning of the policy are explored in relation to the labor market. In Korea, one’s educational background, which served as a yardstick for sorting out manpower, has already seemed to lose its luster in the labor market.
However, both young people and their parents still unintentionally have a preference for going on to college/university. The labor market also finds no solution to the securing and usage of excellent human capital that acts as an alternative to an academic background, creating both a labor shortage and scarce jobs at the same time. This results in a labor market mismatch and serious youth unemployment. In response to this distorted reality, the Geun-hye Park government presented “Realization of a Capacity-Based Society” as a policy goal. It is the specific method for the capacity-based society is to establish the NCS. On the premise that “knowing” is different from “doing,” the purpose of the NCS is to shift away from “what did we learn,” so-called discipline-based education toward “what can we do” or competence- based education. The NCS will pave the way for creating an open labor market where competence is valued above educational attainment or educational background.
In addition, if NCS-based learning modules are well used, practical and demand- centered education will be made, rather than theoretical and supply-centered education.
Therefore, the success of the vocational education policy of the Park Geun-hye government depends upon the development of the NCS and NCS-based learning modules. In particular, the introduction of the NCS is expected to make a substantial contribution to resolving such problems as the cultivation of human capital that is isolated from the demands of industries, educational training programs that fail to meet the demands of industrial settings, and poor management of the training of manpower. The promotion of a vocational education policy will lay the foundation for the establishment of a flexible vocational education system, which makes it possible to facilitate the change in the operation system of Korea’s school-centered vocational education module, to shift work-centered vocational education, and to make school-to-work and work-to-school, based on the participation of industry by improving an environment in which graduates have easy access to the labor market after graduating from secondary vocational education institutes.
References
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Jang, C. S. (2013). A Study on the Historical Development and Institutional Features of the Secondary Vocational Education in Korea (Masters thesis). Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea.
Jang, M. H., J. W. Kim, D. S. Choi, C. W. Park, S. I. Ra, & Y. H. Lee (2012). A Study on Performance Analysis of Policy of High School Graduates Employees and Continuing Education after Employment. KRIVET.
Jang, M. H., S. T. Kim, D. Y. Park, J. P. Ok, Y. S. Lee, D. S., & Choi et al. (2014).
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Office for Government Policy Coordination Prime Minister’s Secretariat (2013). Promotion Tasks for the Park Geun-hye Government’s Vocational Education.
The Present and Future of
Secondary Vocational Education in Korea