Participation of non-regular workers in education and training

｜ Non-regular workers have a lower participation rate in education and training compared to regular workers

● The participation rate of non-regular workers in education and training has been rising in the past 4 years - The participation rate increased by 9.2%p from 18.6% in 2007 to 27.8% in 2011 by 9.2%p

● However, the gap in participation rates between non-regular and regular workers has persisted

- Over the same period, the participation rate of regular workers rose by 11.1%p from 28.4% to 39.5%, so there was no narrowing of the gap between non-regular and regular workers

- As of 2011, the participation rate of non-regular workers was 11.7%p lower than that of regular workers

● Looking at the hours of education and training per year, non-regular workers participated 30 hours in 2007 as compared with 27 hours in 2011, which is a fall of 3 hours

01

Participation of non-regular workers in education and training

- The participation rate of non-regular workers in education and training has increased in 4 years by 9.2%p from 18.6% in 2007 to 27.8% in 2011, but this is still 11.7%p lower than that of the regular workers as of 2011

- Only 22.4% of the participants made the decision for themselves to take part in education and training, while the rest took part to conform to company policies or follow superiors’ directions.

Those who voluntarily participated in education and training had more optimistic perceptions about the effectiveness of education and training in improving their position in the labor market

- Among non-participants, the most common reason for not taking part in education and training was the lack of need (56.8%); only 15.8% indicated that they would undertake education and training in the future

- Generally, not many are optimistic that education and training affects the change of employment status from non-regular to regular orthe rise in wage. In addition to providing more training opportunities for temporary employees, it should be more widely practiced that education and training outcomes lead to improvement in the worker’s employment status

The share of non-regular workers’ participation in education and training

KRIVET Issue Briefis the English version of its original Korean publication, which is issued fortnightly. This is available only in electronic form online.

English

KRIVET Issue Brief

PublisherYoung-bum Park ｜Publication date2012. 10. 15 ｜Published byKRIVET 2012

No.

13

｜Source｜

Statistics Korea, Supplementary survey by employment type in the Economically Active Population Survey(the month of August, various

years) [Figure 1] Trends in non-regular workers’ participation rate and annual education and training hours

●To be able to identify measures to expand education and training for non-regular workers, it is necessary to have a solid understanding of the present situation and to that end, an analysis was made on the results of KRIVET’s “Performance Analysis on Education and Training of Non-regular Workers” (2012)

｜ Only a low percentage of participants made the decision to undertake training

●Only 22.4% of participants took part of training on a voluntary basis

- The rest, 77.6%, participatedin training in accordance with company policy or superior’s directions

- Considering that 45.7%¹⁾of workers made their own decision to participate in employer training, non- regular workers are limited in making decisions to take part in training

｜ More than half of non-participating workers indicated they felt ‘no need to participate’ in education and training

●Looking at the reasons for not taking part, the major one was 56.8% of workers responding that they felt no need for training

- Other reasons included ‘lack of time’(20.6%), ‘lack of information about education and training’(9.0%), ‘no interesting programs’(7.8%), indicating that the overall conditions for employees to receive education and training are insufficient

●If the respondent was younger and higher in educational attainment level, he/she is less likely to respond they felt ‘no need for training’

- The implication is that policies for vitalizing education and training of non-regular workers should be customized with consideration for different personal characteristics

KRIVET Issue Brief

｜Footnote｜

1) Park, CheonSoo et al. (2010), “Analysis of the current conditions of private vocational skills development market and strategies for enhancing competitiveness (II)”, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training

02 The decision to participate in education and training and the expectations

[Figure 2] The proportion of autonomous participation in education and training

[Figure 3] Reasons for not taking part of education and training

｜ 15.8% of non-participants hope to participate in education and training in the future

●The desire to participate in education and training is higher among men, among younger people, and among those with high educational attainment

- Among the non-participants who responded they felt no need for education and training, there is a low ratio of persons with desire to participate in education and training in the future; that is, these respondents did not undertake education and training because they had neither had the need for it nor do they have the desire to participate in the future

｜ Only a small proportion of employees who participated in education and training hold expectations that education and training will positively affect shift in employment status

● 37% of non-regular employees who participated in education and training believe education and training will have an effect of changing their employment status to regular employment

- Such a positive perception was relatively high among the youth and the graduates of junior colleges or higher - 50.0% of the non-regular employees who took part in education and training by choice perceive that education and training exert positive effect of shifting their employment status to regular employment, whereas the respective figure for those who participated in education and training against their will was only 33.3%

● Only 14.6% of employees without participation in education and training expect such a positive influence is exerted on employment status

- Among these employees without education and training, 44.3% replied to have the intention to take part of education and training, but 9.0% indicated they have no intention of participating in the future

- In particular, only 7.0% of those who felt ‘No need’ for education and training indicated that they are interested in undertaking education and training

2012. 10. 15

｜Note｜

Reason 1: No Need

Reason 2: No information about education and training

Reason 3: No interesting programs Reason 4: Costs of training is too expensive Reason 5: No time

Reason 6: etc.

03 Perception of effectiveness of education and training

[Figure 4] The ratio of non-participants with the desire to participate in education and training in the future

[Figure 5] Perception of effect of education and trainingin changing employment status regular employment

KRIVET Issue Brief

●Among the participants of education and training, 32.4% replied that education and training led to increase in wage or is expected to rise

- 41.1% of non-regular employees who took part in education and training on a voluntary basis evaluated education and training having a positive effect of raising the wage level, as compared with 29.9% of those who took part involuntarily

●Only 22.6% of non-participating employees responded that education and training affect wage

- Among these employees, 60.8% expressed the intention to participate in education and training in the future, while 15.4% indicated they have no intention to do so. Those wanting to undertaking education and training are more optimistic about wage increase effect

｜ To expand education and trainingfor non-regular workers, it is necessary to establish labor market practices in which the outcomes of skills development lead to improvement in the worker’s status

●Non-regular workers are low in terms of the share of participation in education and training, but, their participation in education and training on a voluntary basis is also limited. In order to improve training outcomes, participation in education and training undertaken on a voluntary basis needs to be expanded and, for this, more training opportunities should be made available, supported with improved conditions

●Participation in training seems to be closely related with the effects of change to regular employment and wage rise. Workers will not feel the need for education and training unless it leads to improvement in the quality of employment. Therefore, to increase the participation of non-regular workers, it is important to that the status(e.g. shift to full-time employment, wage increase) of workers improves in the labor market upon completion of education and training

●The youth and highly education employees are more optimistic about the positive effects of education and training, and are more actively undertaking education and training and whereas theless educated employees and the olderemployees are less inclined to feel the need for education and training. Even among non-regular employees, there are differences in characteristics depending on groupings. Therefore, policy measures need to be customized to account for such differences among difference groups in order to expand participation of non-regular employees

Cheol-hee Kim(Research Fellow, KRIVET) Jae-ho Chung (Researcher, KRIVET)

Samseong-ro 147-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea, 135-949｜Tel : +82-2-3485-5000/5100｜Fax : +82-2-3485-5200｜www.krivet.re.kr

04 Implications

[Figure 6] Perception of effectiveness of education and training regarding the wage increase