A Study on Career Experience Activities in the Free Semester

A Study on Career Experience Activities in the Free Semester. Researcher in Charge: Seung-Bo Kim / Senior Research Fellow Summary Since the full implementation of free semester programs in Korea from the first semester of 2016, there has been various policy efforts to ensure that these programs successfully take root. This study was conducted to derive implications to achieve a stable footing and institutional development of free semester programs. This was done by analyzing survey findings on perceptions of their current status and the need for improvement and change in organizations and agencies related to career experience activities, as well as by examining case studies of foreign countries operating free semester programs linked to career experience activities. Keywords: free semester program, career experience, middle school students, career education, job exploration. I.. Research Background and Purpose. ■ With the full-scale launching of “free semester programs” throughout Korea in 2016, various policy measures have been taken to ensure their successful implementation. As a prerequisite for their success, there has been growing interest in experiential programs in connection with career experience activities both in and out of school. • The activation of career experience activities at the school level is a prerequisite not only for free semester programs to take root in the short term, but also for the normalization of school education that free semester programs promote in the long term by shifting focus away from the college entrance exam and toward more creative career exploration activities. ■ As for foreign countries that have implemented similar free semester programs, a variety of approaches based on their cumulative experience have been made to assist students in their career experience activities. • Japan also has implemented career experience programs for middle school students at the regional level including “Try-Yaru (Trial) Week” (Hyogo Prefecture) and “Waku Waku Week” (Tokyo Metropolis), and diverse approaches have been made to connect these programs with local community resources. • Other countries including the U.K., the U.S., France, and Denmark have also established and implemented various policy measures to support experiential learning through career experience activities for students, promoting school-community cooperation for those programs. ■ This research involved conducting a survey to investigate and analyze perceptions of the current status and need for improvement and change in organizations and agencies.

•. •. •. relevant to career experience activities. It also involved analyzing case studies of career experience activities in other countries that have implemented free semester programs similar to Korea’s, in an effort to draw policy implications promoting stability and institutional development of free semester programs in Korea. In order to ensure that student career experience activities associated with free semester programs take root in educational settings, there should be assistance in various fields to improve school-community relations and bolster access to local resources. To that end, it is necessary to take some measures to suggest theoretical and practical grounds and implement them. Meanwhile, Korea is expected to experience much trial and error in the process of achieving full implementation of free semester programs due to the special characteristics of its educational environment and diversity of school settings. Therefore, it is necessary to take practical measures, derived from the survey results on perceptions in the domestic educational field, to establish operational models of career experience activities to ensure the stability of free semester programs and their application in Korea. Based on these approaches, this study presents case studies of stable career experience activities programs both at home and abroad and related policy measures to ensure both short-term and mid-to-long-term development of free semester programs.. II. Research Overview 1. Research Process ■ Concept and review of career experience activities relevant to free semester programs • As for the concepts of career experience activities relevant to free semester programs, this study defines the differences between experiential activities and experiential learning, between experiential activities and career experience activities, and between career experience activities and the free semester program based on reviews of research materials and previous studies. • Based on comparisons with overseas case studies, this study attempts to review overseas cases similar to free semester programs, cases similar to career experience programs related to curricula, and characteristics of career experience activities relevant to free semester programs. ■ Several aspects were analyzed including participation and roles of organizations involved in career experience activities; cooperation between various agencies and organizations related to such activities; relevant infrastructure and experience programs; and survey results on perceptions of the current status and need for improvement and change in organizations and agencies involved in free semester program-related career experience activities. • The survey was conducted on a total of 88 professionals with ample hands-on experience, consisting of 35 employees at career experience administrative and support agencies(six from the Ministry of Education; seven from principal career experience support centers; and 22 commissioned career experience support centers); 29 operators and hands-on workers from career experience organizations (11 from universities, seven from private organizations, and 11 from public agencies); and 24 teachers (11 in charge of career counseling and 13 in charge of free semester programs). • Career experience activities relevant to free semester programs have been operating based on a certain appropriate standard..

■ Research contents, methods, and procedures by research stage Stage. →. Diagnosis and problem analysis. →. Questionnaire development and survey. →. Foreign cases. →. Derive improvement plan. Research contents. · Develop diagnostic framework · Develop expert survey. · Open-ended questionnaire · Domestic and foreign expert survey. · (U.K.) Case of London · (Japan) Case of Tokyo. · Share results · Collect expert opinions. Research methods. · Literature review · Expert consultative meeting. · Survey. · Case analysis. · Seminar. Schedule. July. July-Sep.. Sep.. Sep.-Oct.. 2. Research Results ■ Survey results and implications for perceptions of career experience activities • It is necessary to further increase personnel and budget funding to support career experience activities linked to free semester programs. - For most items related to personnel and budget funding to operate and support free semester program-related career experience activities, respondents indicated that there was a significant need for improvement rather than showing relatively positive responses to the current status. • Efforts are needed to strengthen the participation and roles in career experience activities of municipal organizations, public institutions, and private institutions. - In terms of support for career experience activities, support from municipal organizations, private institutions, and public institutions turned out to be relatively insufficient. Survey results showed that this awareness was shared by all of the three groups: administrative and auxiliary institutions, experiential sites, and teachers. • In order for free semester-related career experiential learning to firmly take root, it is necessary to strengthen school-community links and cooperation, which requires close cooperation among institutions providing experiential sites, central and local administrative institutions mediating between schools and experiential sites, and intermediary auxiliary institutions (e.g., career experience support centers). - Respondents said the current cooperative system for career experience activities should be improved significantly (by 0.40 compared to the current status). In particular, they perceived a lack of cooperation between education offices and upper-level municipal organizations and between education offices and public/private institutions. • There is a perception gap among various groups in relation to career experience activities and efforts should be made to narrow that gap. ■ Results and implications of overseas case studies on support for career experience activities • The U.K. has emphasized the importance of career education as integral to school education and has established legal and institutional guidelines to reduce labor market mismatches at the societal level..

-. •. -. The U.K. government has created legal and institutional support for career-related education at the national level, encouraging local governments to establish clear policies with a focus on municipal organizations. Student accountability has been emphasized in career education. Career clusters have been built to reinvigorate cooperation among schools. In Japan, career experience activities are being performed through close links and ties among communities, corporations, institutions, and schools, which form the basis of career experience. In the case of Japan, as the main authority related to career education is granted to local education committees and individual schools, it is possible to develop and operate specialized job experience programs that meet the characteristics of each community.. III. Policy Suggestions 1. Development Plans ■ Establishing community-based regional career experience ecosystems • Schools (teachers and parents) should interlink career experience programs with school curriculum in order to enhance understanding of career experience activities on the part of all teachers and parents, not just occupational education instructors. • Administrative institutions should steer school policies in a way that career experience activities can be incorporated into the school curriculum including general curricula and extra-curricular activities. • Intermediary institutions (regional centers) should create and manage their own mentor pools to facilitate career experience programs, and provide support in the form of human resources and connected activities needed to operate on a small scale. • Experiential sites (government ministries, agencies, administrations, municipal organizations, private sector, etc.) should create and manage consultative bodies bringing together schools and youth groups to support regional youth activities. ■ Securing diversity and quality management for career experience programs • Schools (teachers and parents) should create campus environments in which various career experiential learning techniques such as project-based learning classes and flipped learning can be applied and evaluated. • Administrative institutions should establish and pursue policies for the development of useful career experience programs and contents. • Intermediary institutions (regional centers) should survey their regional resources, develop human and physical experience programs suitable to the nature of those resources, and offer the programs to schools. • Experiential sites (government ministries, agencies, administrations, municipal organizations, private sector, etc.) should form consultative bodies between regional-unit experience program and content developers and operators. ■ Expand and strengthen career experience activities • Work out a roadmap of career experience activities in detail. • Link career experience activities to both curricular and extra-curricular programs. • Encourage students to participate in career experience activities and establish a tracking system. • Create a variety of experiential models by spreading and sharing the best practices of career experience activities..

2. Suggestions ■ It is necessary to establish a cooperative support system centering on the National Career Education Center. ■ It is necessary to increase the efficiency of budget spending by comprehensively identifying youth-related budgets and reviewing connections between free semester and youth career experience programs. ■ It is necessary to call the attention of our entire society to school education, including career experience activities..