Vocational Research on the Self-employment of Youth
KRIVET Research 2019
44
B. Trends in Major Industries as Technology Develops
In this section, the researchers looked into the trends in 5 major industries selected for the research: the software industry, the industry related to the use of new technologies, the sharing economy, the marketing and service industry, and the content industry. According to the research, the market size of these industries is constantly growing and is expected to expand with the inter-industry convergence which will lead to diverse and more job creation.
C. Occupational Overview and Selection Criteria for Major Industries
10 occupations in 5 major industries are the main subjects in this study. More specifically, they are game planners and application developers from the software industry, 3D printing specialists and aerial drone photographers from the field of emerging technologies, sharing economy platform owners and home sharing providers from the sharing economy, digital marketers and digital curators from the marketing services, and Youtube creators and event planners from the content industry.
The 10 occupations were selected based on the change in employment types following technological development and the industries with many young entrepreneurs. The job research consists of a career path, educational training and qualifications, and occupation prospect. On the other hand, the interview survey focuses on personal experiences and opinions such as motivations behind entry to self-employment professions, and the experiences of success and know-how regarding self-employment professions.
3. Required Competencies for Youth Self-employment and Career Path
A. Required Competencies and Educational Training
The main tasks and the knowledge and skills needed for 10 occupations are summarized in this section. Many of occupations related to software development and the use of new technologies required relatively moderate knowledge and skills. However, the sharing economy, marketing and service, and content industries required higher level of competencies.
In this study, we confirmed that these occupations value field based experience, activities, skills more than higher education. Although we were able to draw up a list of
Abstracts 13 Vocational Research on the Self-employment of Youth by Technological Development
undergraduate majors related to each occupation, besides universities public and private educational institutions could provide an opportunity for the youth to learn necessary knowledge and skills for work.
B. Career Path
Throughout the research, we formulated career paths for 10 occupations in youth self-employment. For each occupation, we extracted a number of items including jobs prior to self-employment, educational training and qualifications, the areas for possible future business expansion, and additional knowledge and skills required for expanding business, and then each of them was represented in a figure. Due to the characteristics of self-employment and professions by technological development, we found out that the young self-employed would be able to either expand their businesses or return to other related occupations.
C. Occupation Prospect
Overall, the outlook for occupations in youth self-employment is moderate. The positive outlook is completely predominant over the negative one in four aspects: the size of employment, the legal system, the technological environment, and the task. Although the outlook for application engineer and game planner was bleak in the legal system, there were either positive responses or the coexistence of both positive and negative responses in the four aspects for the rest of occupations.
4. Career Experience of the Young Self-employed
A. Motivations behind Entry to Self-employment by the Young Self-employed
In most cases, the young self-employed entered into self-employment professions to realize their ideas freely during their work life. In the case of the areas linked to previous work, others started their own businesses when they wanted to solve certain issues through their hobbies and personal experiences from their social and daily lives.
B. Success and Failure Experiences of Self-employment
KRIVET Research 2019
46
By examining the key success factors of self-employment jobs, both the government’s and local governments’ startup policies have provided the foundation for the success of entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, this study indicated that insufficient startup funds, lack of knowledge and experience on human resource management, lack of legal knowledge, and lack of leadership as a founder who must share the purpose and value of startup and lead the organization were failure experiences.
C. Requirements for Improving Self-employment Support Policies
The requirements for improving the self-employment support policies are to provide step-by-step funding, consolidate support systems and simplify administrative procedures, implement feasible laws and legal systems reflecting the work site, expand practical education and support capacity development by stage of growth, and create a favorable atmosphere for self-employment.
D. Perspective on Career Education
In this study, the youth are encouraged to take part in various startup support projects or receive entrepreneurship education from non-school institutions, the government, or public institutions, as well as school activities. Parents and teachers are advised to improve their awareness on a variety of career and professions, provide opportunities for startup experience, and help students explore their career aptitude and guide them.
5. Policy Analysis and Support Measures for Youth Self-employment
A. Support Policy Analysis for Self-employment in Korea
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups(MSS) carries out a number of policies to support youth start-ups, which is crucial for support policies for self-employment in Korea. As for support policies related to job creation, there are several major projects including the Youth Employment Academy’s job creating process projects led by the Ministry of Employment and Labor(MOEL) and the startup support projects led by local governments.
Abstracts 13 Vocational Research on the Self-employment of Youth by Technological Development
B. Support Policy Analysis for Self-employment in the United States
This study examined the U.S. startup ecosystem by focusing on the case of Seattle, Washington. The U.S. government's startup-friendly policies were planned and operated through cooperation with private companies, educational institutions and non-governmental organizations.
The case study provides the following implications :
First, it is necessary to create a sustainable startup ecosystem by re-establishing the role of startup related organizations and establishing startup network. Second, the educational system needs to be re-organized so that the results of education can be naturally transferred to business through the reinforcement of linkage between education and startups.
C. Policy Agenda for Youth Self-employment
Based on the research result, this study presents policy tasks for supporting youth self-employment following technological development by dividing into three different categories: the support from the national and local governments, the support from the school education , and from the social aspect.