Skills beyond School
Hyung Man Kim, Cheon sik Woo, Ki rak Ryu, Seok-Young Oh
This report provides an overview of the findings from the country based case study of Korean post-secondary VET as part of the “Programme of Work and Budget 2011-12” under the OECD Skills beyond School (SBS) project in 2010. It was a collaborative effort between the OECD and KRIVET, which recognize the growing importance of skills for economic and social development. Both organizations have been interested in the role of post-secondary vocational education and training(VET) for skills development. Thus, this project studies the Korean post-secondary VET in general based on the pilot research co-conducted by OECD and KRIVET.
The overall aim is to develop an analytical framework and case study of Korea’s post-secondary VET with two objectives in mind, as part of OECD’s country review. The first objective is to analyze and diagnose the issues and challenges faced by Korean post-secondary VET, and to suggest policy remedies to address them. The findings of the research study are presented as part of OECD SBS (skills beyond school) project. Moreover, it is hoped that the study can also present an alternative view on the linkage between post-secondary VET and the labour market. This is guided by the recognition that Korean post-secondary VET can play a positive role in economic and social development. The second objective is to support the efforts of the OECD to present policy recommends on post-secondary VET based on the findings of the study of Korea’s post-secondary VET and the labour market. It is hoped that the policy implications of the research effort can assist Korean policy makers in formulating policies on Korea’s post-secondary VET.
Korean Education system can be classified into five groups: compulsory education (elementary and middle school), upper secondary, post-secondary, undergraduate, and graduate. Korean vocational education is classified by two types within upper secondary schooling: VET and post-secondary VET. Upper secondary VET is vocational high school, and post-secondary VET includes junior college, polytechnic colleges, and others. Lastly, tertiary education includes
post-secondary VET as well as undergraduate and graduate programs.
On the other hand, the OECD defines post-secondary VET based on the programme and institutions characteristics. According to the OECD’s definition, post-secondary programmes are one year or more in length, and go beyond upper secondary level (ISCED 4, 5 and 6). The majority or teaching takes place in post-secondary vocational institutions.
According to the OECD’s definitions, Korea’s post-secondary VET can be classified as junior colleges and polytechnic colleges, which account for 21.5% of total student enrolled in tertiary education. In particular, there are a total of 145 junior colleges, which account for 21% of total students in tertiary education.
The study focused on three areas of Korean post-secondary VET: the structure and operation of post-secondary institutions, and the linkage between VET and the labour market.
The following discusses the structure of Korean post-secondary VET and the formation of skills:
In Korea, post-secondary VET is comprised of private instructions. Since 1980, Korean
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tertiary education has rapidly expanded. However, its size is decreasing based on the declining number of students and institutions due to the declining school age population. In 2011, 94% of the junior colleges were private.
The number of students per faculty in junior colleges is high relative to universities.
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Moreover, only 53.8% of the total faculty members teach full-time. In particular, the number of students is decreasing in junior colleges, while the number of students in universities continues to increase. Also, the share of students that temporarily discontinue their education is very high at about 35%. This suggests that many students in junior colleges transfer to universities.
The number of programmes increased from 3,741 in 2006 to 5,446 in 2010, which was
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caused by the efforts of institutions to attract students according to offset declining enrollment rates due to declining school age population. On the contrary, many junior college institutions have only changed the names of programmes to recruit more students.
There is an excess of post-secondary VET programmes while the drop-out rate remains very
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low. Thus, the completion rate is relatively high. This suggests that students can easily acquire an associate degree at a junior college.
On the other hand, employment rate is gradually declining, which makes it difficult for
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graduates to find a job after completing post-secondary programmes. Also, the employment rate is higher among graduates of polytechnic colleges than junior colleges. In particular, students not from Seoul experience difficulty in finding jobs after graduating.
The following chapter discusses the operation of post-secondary VET in Korea, which is not only affected by the institutions themselves, but also the government and other stakeholders.
In Korea, there is a lack of an overarching umbrella organization in the governance of
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post-secondary VET. The organizational body in charge of decision-making and policy making on post-secondary issues are separated among several ministries, as well as employers or trade
unions, which mostly do not take part in the organization. Employer groups or trade unions don’t take part in the board of an education foundation. In particular, the steering function is very closed in the operation of private junior colleges.
In 2008, the amount of public expenditure spent on education per student in Korea was lower
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than the OECD average, while education expenditure as a percentage of GDP was the second highest among OECD countries. As such, a high portion or 77% of the education cost is funded by private tuition. Direct expenditures to institutions account for 85.2% of public subsidies in the form of financial aid to students. The scholarships and loans to students account for most of the remaining subsidies. As such, the system of scholarships and loans is very weak in Korea, though they have been increasing rapidly lately driven by government support. Also, the government has been trying to improve the funding scheme’s formula to ensure quality besides increasing it. In general, the burden of paying for the cost of education in junior colleges is mostly shouldered by students or families, while the cost of education in polytechnic colleges is mostly paid by the government.
In Korea, the quality assurance system is very weak. The Korean Council for College
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Education (KCCE) oversees accreditation with relation to quality or performance of junior college. Also, polytechnic colleges only have an index for self-assessment of each campus and programmes. The information infrastructure to support a quality assurance system is not only weak, but the function of collecting relevant data for quality assurance framework is also weak.
On the whole, job-related training is very weak in Korean post-secondary VET, though it is
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relatively better in polytechnic colleges compared to junior colleges which have poor programs.
Moreover, the linkage between government, employers, trade unions, and other social group that make up the “social partnership” critical to facilitating post-secondary is also weak.
The study also tries to better understand the linkages that connect post-secondary VET and the labour market, which are closely linked by other systems such as information, qualification, skills standard, and career guidance. The links that facilitate this connection is discussed in following manner:
The information infrastructure that links VET and the labour market include the collection and
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dissemination of data that has been processed. In Korea, there are the three sources of data including surveys of tertiary graduates, the Graduate Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS), and Panel Survey for Youth People. However, these surveys still do not provide adequate information about post-secondary VET. In Korea, a report called the “Future of the Job World” is published by KRIVET every year. This report provides information on job profiles and relevant study programs in tertiary education. However, the report fails to provide information that links a specific job to a specific study programs. Overall, the collection and dissemination of information is weak.
The system of qualification links VET and the labour market. In Korea, there are two types
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of qualification: degree and vocational qualification. A degree is given to students that completed a programme at a junior college and polytechnic college, while a vocational qualification is given
to students that did not complete a programme in post-secondary VET. Vocational qualification is separated based on the relevant curriculum in post-secondary VET programmes.
The system of delivering skilled workers between VET and the labour market is closely tied
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to the National Competency Standard (NCS) in Korea. The NCS is an collaboration between government and industry councils. However, industry councils and employers only play a small role in post-secondary VET. Most importantly, the NCS itself a government agency is not used in post-secondary VET porgrammes. As such, the development of the NCS is on-going project.
Lastly, career guidance at schools is mainly focused on counseling students on enrollment into
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higher education institutions, while career development is more focused on ensuring employment security among adults rather than providing vocational counseling. The administering agencies of career development, the MEST and MOEL, have a weak collaboration with relation to career guidance and use of information.
As discussed above, the Korean post-secondary VET confronts many issues and challenges, which can be summarized in the following:
Due to the traditional seniority based compensation system in Korea, the skills acquired in
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post-secondary VET institutions are not sufficiently compensated in the form of higher wages or promotion.
The system of quality assurance is very weak in the education and training institutions.
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Specially, the student’s practice in the industry or workplace is very poor.
Many junior colleges are pursuing academically oriented programmes instead of delivering
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vocational education as they were intended. There is a growing recognition among many graduates to enroll in a four year university. The correlation between a junior college education and job placement is weak.
The NCS and vocational qualification system are not linked well with the curriculum of
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junior colleges. Many junior college graduates enter into the labour market without vocational qualification after graduating, though graduates acquire an associate degree.
In Korea, the system of implementing post-secondary VET policies is weak, while the
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post-secondary VET agencies do not participate in the policy making process. Moreover, employers and trade unions should not be involved the planning or decision-making of policies.
Due to the large number of private junior colleges, government policy efforts fail to achieve their policy goals in VET and in the labor market.
Korea’s policy issues and challenges can be explained within the framework of post-secondary VET, the labour market, and economic social conditions. Based on the findings of the study, the following policy recommendations are suggested:
Re-establishing the quality assurance system in junior colleges by promoting the participation
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of employers on the board of an educational foundation, expanding the formula scheme for funding, strengthening the linkage between job training and the NCS (national competency
standards), and so on;
Strengthening the connection between VET programmes and qualification based on the NCS.
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Enforcing the delivery of job related training at post-secondary VET institutions to address
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skills mismatch or skills gap in the labour market;
Establishing a single, umbrella organization to coordinate all of the government agencies, VET
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providers, employers or employer groups, trade unions, and NGOs.
Improving the information infrastructure by strengthening data collection and dissemination,
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enhancing career counseling, and so on.
