Definition of vocational education
History of vocational education in Korea
During this time, the number of technical schools among other vocational education institutions saw significant growth, and experiential learning was reinforced in the programs. Under the government's initiative to promote vocational education in the 1950s, greater emphasis was placed on achieving 'one skill per person' education. The shift in vocational education during this period was mainly caused by factors outside education, such as in the field of politics, economy and society.
In the 1970s, the goal of vocational education in Korea was to train a skilled workforce that would pursue modernization of the nation, primarily through industrialization. Despite these efforts, economic slowdown and impoverished rural economy in the early 1980s affected vocational training and caused a shortage in the number of applicants to vocational high schools. In the tertiary level institutions, such as junior colleges, industrial colleges and universities of technology, vocational education has been made more powerful.
Legal mechanisms
The reform also resulted in the laying of a solid foundation for lifelong vocational education and the reorganization of the qualification system. However, in the umpteenth revision of the Industrial Education Promotion Act in 1997, clauses on school-industry cooperation, especially in the field of on-the-job training, were included in the Vocational Education and Training Promotion Act. Since then, the Law for the Promotion of Industrial Education has no clauses on cooperation between schools and industry, with the exception of Article 9, which concerns industrial counseling by industrial teachers.
5316 in March 1997 based on the third educational reform bill for the establishment of the new vocational education system announced in February 1996. The act establishes a link between vocational education and vocational training, which until then was followed by the Ministry of Education and respectively Human resources. Development and Ministry of Education. It consists of 23 clauses and supplementary provisions which aim to promote education and vocational training, increase its quality and give individuals the opportunity to receive a variety of vocational education and training.
Items prescribed by the Act on the Promotion of Vocational Education and Training can be categorized into the following: the content of the basic national plan on the promotion of vocational education and training, measures for improving market functions related to vocational education and training, and matters concerning the strengthening of liaison and cooperation between institutions. With regard to strengthening liaison and cooperation, the Act on the Promotion of Vocational Education and Training allows VET institutions to link programs or to share human and material resources among themselves. The government, under this law, is responsible for drawing up and implementing VET promotion plan, creating a favorable environment for vocational education and training, establishing committees for the review and coordination of VET policies, and the evaluation of VET -institutions and the disclosure of the results to individuals and.
The Framework Act on Qualifications is another of the three pieces of legislation on vocational education and training. In addition to the three pieces of legislation, there is the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training Act, which was enacted in March 1996 and later subsumed under the Act on the Establishment, Operation and Incorporation of Government-Invested Research Institutions. The Act provided the legal basis for the establishment of an institution that develops policies and conducts specialized research related to vocational education and training.
Management and administration
The Framework Act provides the basis for updating and improving qualification systems in accordance with actual needs, and allows the introduction of private qualifications where necessary. The Framework Act opened the way for companies and lifelong education institutions that had, out of necessity, managed their own qualifications system, to have their qualifications recognized and supported by the government. On the basis of this law, problems regarding the authority and validity of private qualifications could be resolved.
The Bureau of Lifelong and Vocational Education consists of the Department of Lifelong Learning, the Department of Vocational Education and the Department of Youth Affairs. The three departments under the Lifelong and Vocational Education Bureau oversee the operation of various types of VE institutions. Vocational high schools, technological universities and polytechnics are the prosecutors for the vocational training department.
Regional education policies are made and orchestrated by municipal and provincial education offices. These local authorities set the basic standards of vocational education in the region in accordance with the higher education policy of the central government and administer matters of education and creative arts activities. In order to effectively respond to the trends of diversification and specialization of professions, departments have recently been set up in local autonomous bodies to deal specifically with lifelong learning.
Providers of vocational education
- Vocational high school
- Junior college
- University of technology
- General high school
At upper secondary level, the distinction between institutions with general and vocational tracks is clear, as general upper secondary schools mostly accommodate students who follow higher education after graduation, and vocational upper secondary schools, which recruit students who are looking for work and in some cases higher education after graduation. Innovative forms of vocational high schools have also been introduced, such as the special high school, integrated high school and special high school. The number of students enrolled in regular 4-year high schools and universities of technology has shown a slight increase, while the number enrolled in junior high schools has fallen in the same way as in vocational high schools.
Higher vocational schools were first established in the 1950s with the aim of inculcating practical skills and attitudes that are needed. Vocational high schools in Korea today are categorized into the agricultural, technical, business, fishery, home economics, industrial, and comprehensive high schools. schools. The number of commercial high schools has decreased since 1999, with the declining portion being converted to comprehensive or specialized high schools.
As a way to revive schools of vocational orientation, the government is trying to keep the decline in students in vocational high schools. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development is working to transform vocational high schools into specialized high schools and to support specialized schools to reform themselves diversely. Among them are the difficulty of attracting students under conditions of generally negative public opinion and the perceived low quality of education in the vocational high schools.
These are issues that must be resolved in order to normalize the functioning of secondary vocational schools. As the axis of vocational education shifts from vocational high schools to junior colleges, greater effort should be focused on fostering specialized junior colleges of small size and creating a system that links schools of vocational high school with small colleges (2+2 articulation program). Linkage and collaboration should also be promoted between school and industry. It is also an objective which is part of the general mission of general secondary schools.
The types of vocational curricula offered in general secondary schools can be categorized into vocational education course, work preparation course and commissioned education. The vocational education course is designed for general secondary school students who do not plan to advance to higher education institutions and therefore choose to take vocational education from the second year. First of all, there is a lack of environments and competent teachers who are specialized in vocational education, making it impossible for general secondary schools to offer vocational education with their capacity.
Prospects and tasks
Given the relatively negative image widely held of vocational education and the low quality of vocational education offered, the number of students in general secondary school who choose to take advantage of vocational education opportunities is more or less insignificant. Vertically, education in secondary vocational schools should be carried out in relation to education in secondary universities in terms of content and system. An ideal alternative can be found in the establishment of a vocational education system starting at the vocational secondary school through the new college and eventually the university of technology (see Figure 2).
In order for new colleges to contribute to the systematization of vocational education and to improve the public image of vocational education, they should be reorganized into institutions that place special emphasis on developing skills in the workplace and providing opportunities for continuing education. for graduates of secondary vocational schools and qualified workers in the labor market. From a system point of view, this requires reforming the curriculum management, student recruitment and entrance exam process in small colleges to be functional in line with vocational high schools and universities of technology. Higher than junior colleges in the continuing education system is the university of technology.
The technical universities must also offer four-year programs for employees who have graduated from secondary vocational schools and who want to pursue further education. Graduate and postgraduate level programs in vocational training should target manager-level employees to increase a competent workforce in management. Such programs should be designed to differ from the degree-granting programs at academically oriented universities.
Vocational education is the disadvantaged part of the broader category of education, and what is worse, the cost of receiving such an education is higher than in the case of the more popular general education. Thus, students in the vocational field are forced to take courses aimed at preparing students in the general education track to pursue higher education in colleges/universities. Finally, a system of curriculum management, based on accurate analysis of job responsibilities in the actual workplace, must be implemented.
Vocational education institutions at all levels have been criticized for their emergence of a workforce with skills inadequate for workplace work.
