BIBB / International seminar on 15 years KRIVET

International seminar on 15 years KRIVET

Reinhold Weiß

KRIVET (the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training) was founded on October 18, 1997 as a public research insti-tute. It is directly answerable to the prime minister of South Korea and is affiliated with the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences. KRIVET's role is to perform research and projects related to vocational education and training policies, the development and implementation of vocational training programs as well as transitions from the education and training system into the labour market.

KRIVET employs 171 members of staff, of whom 78 are researchers with doctorates. They manage a project budget of 28.3 million Korean won. The main providers of funding are the Ministries of Labour and of Education. Currently KRIVET is headed by its President, Dr. Young-Bum Park.

Auditorium of the International Seminar on KRIVET

The international seminar convened to mark KRIVET's fifteenth anniversary was dedicated to the issue of youth unemployment. A concern that emerged from the Korean hosts' welcome speeches was that education and employment systems may be drifting apart, leading to a growing mismatch which could act as a major brake on Korea's economic growth and future development. Welcome addresses were given by

Mr. Chin-Keun Park, Chairman of the Korean National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences,
Mr. Eung-Gweon Kim, Vice Minister of Education, Science and Technology,
Mr. Jaep-Kap Lee, Vice Minister of Employment and Labour.

Prof. Dr. Reinhold Weiß, Deputy President of the BIBB, during his presentation

Speakers from different countries (Germany, United Kingdom, USA, China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea) reported on the issue from their own countries. A feature common to all these countries (except Germany) proved to be a distinctly higher rate of unemployment among young people than among older people, meaning that young people are considerably harder hit by the consequences of the economic and financial crisis. Not everyone classified only the under-25s as younger people. In some cases, the category was extended to include the under-30s or even people aged under 34. Furthermore there are certain phenomena that are specific to individual countries. In China, for example, rural migration and the influx of large numbers of low-qualified workers into cities are causing sizeable problems. In Korea, the problem is the high proportion of university graduates (over 80 per cent) who cannot find a job that meets their expectations.

Vocational education and training (VET) is expected to find (better) solutions to these problems in future. The speakers were unanimous that the quality and status of VET must be improved in the eyes of the public and of employers. More intensive cooperation is necessary between vocational schools and employers to enable them to respond appropriately to the needs of the economy. However, the fundamental problem is that large companies are not necessarily interested, because their image already allows them to recruit the best graduates from the most highly regarded universities. Meanwhile the highly specific profiles of small companies disqualify them from the outset as partners for training establishments or even universities.

Among a number of strategies, the following are being pursued specifically in Korea to ensure better coordination of the education and training system with the employment system:

Providing better vocational orientation and information about the la-bour market during schooling and university studies,
Financially supporting cooperation with employers, or making financing dependent upon cooperation arrangements,
Establishing a trade and technical school for "Meister",
Carrying out evaluation and quality assurance of university education,
Fostering entrepreneurial competencies from the education and training system,
Retraining and follow-up qualification programmes for university graduates.

KRIVET plans to produce a volume documenting the event, and the manuscripts of the talks and speeches given will be published.