Technical certificates helped a lot of people land jobs

A forklift removes cargo from a truck. Forklift certification was a sought after skill between 2018 and 2020.

Having a national technical qualification certificate helped people find jobs, especially in construction and engineering.

According to the Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRD), 2.25 million out of 2.26 million job posts registered on job recruitment website WorkNet between 2018 and 2020 either required or preferred people with a national technical qualification certificate.

The certificate is a qualification issued by the government for various types of job skills.

Among the 2.25 million job postings, 23,951 were looking for people who could drive forklifts; 19,499 for people with an architecture engineer certificate; 16,913 for craftsman cook certificates for Korean food; 11,727 for electricity engineer certificates; and 10,354 for civil engineering certificates.

There was an increase in postings looking for people with environmental air pollution engineer certificates. In 2018, that certificate was the 24th most desired, which jumped to 20th place in 2019 and 13th last year. According to the HRD, more companies are adopting carbon neutrality policies and looking for personnel in related areas.

Job posts for people with a vocational counselor certificate in 2020 rose 20 percent on year. A craftsman certificate in energy management was popular, rising 31 percent on year.

Businesses in the manufacturing industry were the most active in looking for people with government-issued certificates. Companies in the construction industry followed, with science and engineering companies coming in third.

Government-issued certificates in engineering and construction led to the best paying jobs. A professional engineer certificate in soil mechanics foundation earned the highest salary, an average 4.3 million won ($3,606) a month, followed by an engineer certificate in water pollution control (3.9 million won), engineer certificate in architectural structures (3.6 million won) and construction safety engineer certificate (3.5 million won).

“With the analysis, we were able to understand which government certificates companies were looking for,” said HRD President Uh Soo-bong.

BY KIM KI-CHAN, LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]