As discu ssed before, th e Basic Vocation al Trainin g Act inclu din g th e com p u lsory trainin g system , contribu ted to th e trainin g of skilled m anp ow er, bu t it d id n ot m eet th e ch an gin g d em an d s for in du strial m anp ow er . In ad dition, th e law con strain ed enterp rises from p rovidin g u p grad e train in g to th eir em p loyees.
Th e governm en t en acted th e Act on Prom otin g Workers' Vocation al Train in g in 1997 to establish a system for vocation al com p etency d evelop m ent an d to encou rage en terp rises to p rovid e fu rth er train in g for th e em p loyed on a v olu ntary basis. Th e act h as p u t in to effect since Janu ary 1999. With th e enforcem ent of th e act, th e Basic Vocation al Trainin g Act w as abolish ed .
Accordin g to th e act, th e Min ister of Labor p rovid es fin ancial su p p ort to em p loyers w h o im p lem ent v ocation al com p etency d evelop m ent p rogram s. Th e Minister also su p p orts em p loyees w h o m ake an effort to d evelop th eir vocation al com p etency, i.e., u n d ertakin g vocation al com p eten cy d ev elop m ent trainin g p rogram s, w antin g to acqu ire a certificate or u n d ertakin g p rogram s d esign ated in th e Edu cation Law . Governm en tal agencies or local au ton om ies m ay p rovid e trainin g for th e u n em p loyed .
Th e en actm en t of th e law p rovid es a m om entu m for an oth er take-off in v ocation al trainin g. Un d er th e act, restriction s on
in-p lant trainin g p ractices w ere rem oved , w hile encou ragin g volu ntary trainin g, d em an d -oriented trainin g, an d u p gradin g job com p etency for th e em p loyed . Th e governm en t h as p layed a su p p ortive role as an assistant in encou ragin g vocation al trainin g .
Th e n u m ber of w orkers tr ain ed h as increased sin ce im p lem entation of th e n ew tr ain in g p olicy u n d er th e EIS. In ad d ition , m ost in -p lant trainin g sch em es inclu d e "ad v anced " cou rses, in stead of basic trainin g as ten d ed to be th e case u n d er th e levy system (table 4).
Table 4. Proportion of peop le undertaking initial training and f urther training, 1990-99>
Un it : %
Total
Initial training
Subtotal
Upgrade T
Subtotal
Public P riv ate Public P riv ate
1990 44,852 (100.0) 45.4 29.8 75.2 0.7 24.1 24.8 199 1 78,552 (100.0) 32.6 32.1 64.7 0.4 34.9 35.3 1992 132,608 (100.0) 17.6 30.9 48.5 2.1 49.4 5 1.5 1993 127,3 14 (100.0) 18.6 29.0 47.6 2.0 50.4 52.4 1994 159,979 (100.0) 2.0 44.0 46.0 5.2 48.8 54.0 1995 175,767 (100.0) 11.5 2 1.5 33.0 5.8 6 1.2 67.0 1996 170,427 (100.0) 10.2 19.5 29.7 11.3 59.0 70.3 1997 199,98 1 (100.0) 7.8 14.2 22.0 16.6 6 1.4 78.0 1998 750,137 (100.0) 4.0 5.5 9.5 14.7 75.8 90.5 1999 9 13,7 18 (100.0) 4.0 1.0 5.0 9.0 86.0 95.0 S our ce: Ministry of Labor , T h e curr ent st atu s of v ocational tr ainin g pr ogr am s,
1991- 2000.
H ow ever, d esp ite th ese encou ragin g resu lts, it w ou ld ap p ear th at cu rrent train in g p rogram s for th e em p loyed su ffer from certain d eficien cies:
Only a sm all p rop ortion of th e firm s w hich p ay contribu tion s to th e fu n d actu ally p rovid e trainin g for th eir w orkers. To take th e exam p le of in-p lan t trainin g, w hich is th e m ost com m on , du rin g 2000 on ly 10.6 p er cen t of th e in su red firm s p rovid ed in-p lant trainin g (table 5). Du rin g th e sam e p eriod , only 18.1 p er cent of all in su red w orkers receiv ed in -p lant vocation al trainin g. Th e take-u p of th e oth er p rogram s of train in g for th e em p loyed is even low er .
Fu rth erm ore, large firm s are th e m ain ben eficiaries of th e trainin g p rogram s for th e em p loyed . As sh ow n in table 5, in 2000, th e p articip ation rate of firm s w ith less th an 150 w orkers in in-p lant vocation al trainin g w as n egligible, w hile it cam e close to 1640 p er cent in th e case of firm s w ith ov er 1000 w orkers. This high p articip ation rate is exp lain ed by th e fact th at firm s m ay claim su p p ort m ore th an on ce ov er a given p eriod of tim e. Only abou t 4 p er cent of th ose em p loyed in sm all firm s received in-p lan t trainin g, com p ared w ith 62.5 p er cent in th e case of large firm s.
Oth er p rogram s of trainin g for th e em p loyed are m ain ly u sed by large firm s.
Table 5. Benef iciaries of in-plant vocational training programs, by f irm size, 2000>
Unit : % Firm s iz e (n u m b er of w ork ers)
T otal Le ss th an 150 150 - 1000 1000+
Su b sid ized firm s 100 (73,411) 77.2 17.4 5.4 Firm s p ayin g
con tribu tion s 100 (693,414) 94 .0 0.8 0.1 Firm s' p articip ation r ate 10.6 8.7 233.3 1239.6 Su b sid ized w orker s 100 (1,220,334) 13.6 25.9 60.5 In su red w ork ers 100 (6,747,263) 61.2 19.9 17.5 W oker s' p articip ation
rate 18.1 4 .0 23.5 62.3
Am ou n t of su b sid ized 100 (180,749,711) 14 .0 32.1 53.8 N ote : Con stru ction is d ealt w ith sep ar ately giv en th at sp ecial con tribu tion ru les,
n ot b ased on firm size, ap p ly to firm s in th is sect or, bu t n ot sh ow n in th e t able . In th e section of firm s p ayin g con tribu tion s, con stru ction con tribu ted 5.1 p er cen t . An d in th e section of in su red w orkers, con stru ction accou n ted for 1. 4 p er cen t .
It w ou ld th erefore ap p ear th at trainin g u n d er th e EIS h as n ot su cceed ed in increasin g su bstantially trainin g p rovid ed by sm all enterp rises . As large firm s w ou ld , in any event, ten d to train w orkers in th e absen ce of sp ecific p olicies, it seem s highly likely th at th e trainin g su bsidies yield large ' w in d fall' gain s to large firm s. Alth ou gh th e p rovision of trainin g is likely to increase w ith econ om ic recovery, th e system ' s effectiv en ess su ffers from th e excessive nu m ber of p rogram s an d th e fact th at trainin g ten d s to be concen trated in large enterp rises. As in oth er OECD cou ntries, th ere is a risk th at w orkers in sm all firm s, once train ed , are hired by eith er an oth er sm all firm or a bigger on e. Th is risk m ay be high er in Korea, given th e u nu su ally large gap in term s of w ages an d w orkin g con dition s betw een large an d sm all firm s.
4 . A sch em e to p ro m ote train in g in Sm all an d M e diu m s iz e Enterp rises (SM E)
In ord er to su p p ly skilled labor to SM Es an d u p grad e th e skills level of em p loyees of SM Es, th e Ministry of Labor introdu ced a p ilot p rogram w hich is called "th e SMEs trainin g con sortiu m " in Ju n e 2001. Th e p rogram takes three form s d ep en d in g on sector an d region : SM E-em p loyer association typ e, SMEs-large en terp rise an d SMEs-p u blic trainin g in stitu tes.
Th e p rogram h as been im p lem ented in 6 m od el trainin g in stitu tes (im p lem en tin g agencies) since Ju n e 2001. As of Janu ary, 2002, 597 SMEs p articip ated in th e p rogram , w ith a total 33,335 p erson s . Most of p articip atin g firm s are in th e sectors of ship bu ildin g an d m ech anics, w hich su ffer from th e sh ortages of skilled labor .
Th e ch aracteristics of SM E trainin g con sortiu m inclu d e p rovidin g trainin g on th e basis of d em an d s of p articip atin g SMEs. Th e im p lem en tin g agency con du cts su rveys of em p loyers of SM Es on th e em p loym en t n eed s an d skills n eed s. Based on th e su rvey resu lts, th ey d evelop train in g p rogram s based on job an alysis. As a resu lt, th ey p rovid e diverse trainin g p rogram s, w ith flexible tim e sch edu les so th at th ose w h o w ish to take trainin g, d o so an ytim e an d on any p rogram . Th is d em an d-orien ted ap p roach encou raged SM Es to p articip ate in trainin g p rogram s .
Since th e op eration of th e p rogram , th e p articip ation of SME w orkers in trainin g h as increased . Com p ared to th e year 2000 w h en th e p rogram w as n ot op eratin g, th e nu m ber of trainin g p rogram s increased from 32 to 178 an d th e nu m ber of w orkers p articip atin g in train in g increased from 921 to 5,393, du rin g th e p eriod betw een Ju ly 2001 an d Janu ary 2002.
Th e governm ent p lan s to exp an d th e p ilot p rogram to inclu d e oth er sectors an d region s u p on evalu atin g th e im p lem entation of th e p rogram after on e-year of op eration .
V . Issu es an d Con cern s in V ET 1. Relev ance of V ET
Accordin g to Robert Reich , th e th ree jobs of th e fu tu re inclu d e rou tin e p rodu ction services (p erform in g rep etitive tasks); in-p erson services (p rovid in g p erson-to p erson services); an d sym bolic an alytical services (p roblem -solvin g, p roblem -id entifyin g an d strategic brokerin g activities). In Korea, th e overarchin g n eed is to d evelop critical-thinkin g skills, com m u nication skills, com p u ter skills, qu antitative reasonin g an d social interaction am on g stu d ents so th at th ey can becom e su ccessfu l kn ow led ge w orkers for th e fu tu re. Th ese n ew skills are very different from th ose tradition ally tau ght at sch ools. Alth ou gh th e qu ality of Korean edu cation at th e p rim ary an d secon d ary levels h as been p raised arou n d th e w orld , h ow w ell can Korean sch ools p erform an d h ow good w ill be th e qu ality of Korean edu cation w h en m easu red again st th ese n ew skills requ irem en ts? Until n ow , th e m ain p u rp ose of secon d ary ed u cation in Korea h as been to p rep are stu d ents to en ter p restigiou s colleges an d u n iversities. Even th ou gh a n u m ber of reform s h ave been in stigated in this area, th e college entrance exam in ation system still ten d s to giv e p riority to stu d ents w h o d o better in all field s on average, rath er th an to th ose w h o p ossess creativity an d p roblem -solvin g cap abilities. Th e gap betw een w h at cu rrently exists an d w h at is requ ired for th e fu tu re n eed s to be
brid ged for Korea' s su ccessfu l tran sition to a kn ow led ge-based econ om y . Th ere are d istortion s in th e labor m arket in Korea w ith resp ect to w age p rem iu m s for d ifferen t typ es of edu cation / d egrees, p artly fu eled by th e trad ition al sen se of edu cation al elitism . In its tran sform ation to an advanced, kn ow led ge-based econ om y, Korea m u st an alyze its edu cation system n ot only from th e su p p ly sid e, bu t also from th e d em an d sid e as w ell.