Education tailored for employment

Home > Opinion > Letters

print dictionary print

Education tailored for employment


Youth unemployment is largely due to structural problems such as prolonged economic slump or sluggish investment. But it is a task that can be substantially resolved with the will and efforts of the people involved. Advancement of industries and reorganization of employment-friendly workforce training to offer more jobs to highly educated job seekers cannot lead to immediate results. So how about we find other solutions for unemployment by seeking smooth communication between educational institutes and industries and other alternatives?

Since 2001, the Korea International Trade Association has been offering one-year programs for college graduates on information technology and Japanese language. Ninety-eight percent of those who have completed the Smart Cloud Master Program have found employment. The secret to the high employment rate is surprisingly simple. The program organizers frequently contact businesses to survey supply and demands of workforce and understand the skills that companies want to immediately reflect on the curriculum.

While the youth employment rate remains at 40 percent, Korea Polytechnics boasts 80 percent employment rate of their graduates four years in a row. The school has made its name as a home of technical professionals, producing a workforce with field knowledge through constant communication with industries. Engineers with more than ten years of field experiences are invited to teach, and the professors serve as a bridge between businesses and students. The hands-on training was the key to their success.

Various causes and solutions for youth unemployment are discussed. It is the most desperate social issue, and it deserves such attention and diagnosis. However, just as vocational training greatly contributed to raising youth employment rate in Germany and Switzerland, proper job training can get young Koreans appropriate employment opportunities. If educational institutes listen to the voices of industries to educate and train the workforce to meet the needs of the companies, the unemployment amid labor shortage would be considerably resolved.

Park Yeon-woo, General manager of Korea International Trade Association



Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)