The Changes and Tasks of the Vocational Competencies Development in Korea

The vocational training system was formally established in Korea with the legislation of the Vocational Training Act in 1967. Since then our vocational training system has evolved and contributed to our economic and social development. Despite its crucial role in our recent socio-economical development, reports on the history of Korean vocational training system are scarce. The purpose of this report was to review changes in vocational training system based on my professional involvement in this area for 26 years. In the first period(1967~1974), the initial formal system for vocational training was made. The second period(1975~1998) can be characterized as the compulsory vocational training system. The period from 1999 until now can be summarized as opening training market to the private sector. Based on the review of the historical flow of our vocational training system, the following suggestions were made. First, the key roles of government in vocational training should be refined to set rules for the game and monitor the implementation, and should not involve vocational training market directly. Second, in order to facilitate the fair competition in the vocational training market, the process and the results of evaluation should be open to the public and the accessibility should be enhanced. Third, the infrastructure should be established to clarify and to inform the providers the needs of training. Finally, to cope with the rapidly changing era of information based society, we have to develop a vocational training system in which we can help people to be more creative and flexible with higher level competencies