04/09/2012 - Korea should reform its vocational education and training programmes to ensure that students leave college with the skills and expertise that companies need in today’s rapidly changing labour market, according to a new OECD report.
The Skills beyond School review of Korea says that strengthening Korea's postsecondary programmes and institutions for vocational training will help the country meet the rising demand for higher level technical and professional skills.
Korea can build on several strengths: the high value placed on education in society, the strong literacy and numeracy skills of its young people, and a strong base of research and data linked to dynamic policy making. The main challenge is that the Korean labour market and its skills system contain rather weak incentives for investment in the skills required by the economy, as opposed to education qualifications which are widely revered.
Among the OECD’s recommendations are that Korea should:
For further information, journalists are invited to contact Simon Field at OECD's Directorate for Education (tel. +33 1 45 24 18 71).
See also: www.oecd.org/education/VET
Full country policy reviews are being conducted in Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Israel, Korea, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (England), and the United States (with case studies of Florida, Maryland and Washington State). Shorter exercises leading to an OECD country commentary will be undertaken in Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Iceland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and in Northern Ireland and Scotland in the United Kingdom. Background reports will be prepared in all these countries, and in France, Hungary and Mexico.
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