A Case Study on the HRD for Women through Public Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the Korea Polytechnics

Abstract: A job selected by individual abilities and aptitudes plays a vital role in determining an individual's social and economic life. For career-interrupted women, jobs are a means of living, and they also play a role in establishing an individual's identity and increasing self-esteem. Korea has promoted women's participation in economic activities through the "Act on Economic Activities of Career-Interrupted Women (AEACIW)." Since the productive population is decreasing due to the current low birth rate and increase in the aging population, women's participation in economic activities seems essential in increasing the supply of the workforce. Korean women's economic activities and women's employment rate are still below the OECD average(KERI, 2021). Factors including marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and unsatisfying working conditions including gender and wage gaps hinder women’s economic participation. Furthermore, competency development for women is still insufficient for the needs of industrial changes and demands. Considering the results of previous studies (An, 2022; Hong, 2020; Kim et al, 2021; Lee & Kim, 2019; Oh, 2021; Yoo, 2021) that the increase in women's participation in economic activities contributes to economic development, the importance of flexible and agile women's human resource development (HRD) to adapt to the rapidly changing industry in the era of the 4th industrial revolution and the prolonged COVID-19 has increased. Nevertheless, there are few studies on cases of women's reemployment through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) or performance analysis.
In particular, the reasons why this study focused on the case of HRD for women through the public TVET are as follows. First, TVET in Korea has achieved rapid economic growth by efficiently supplying industrial human resources (HR) over the past 50 years. Hence Korea Polytechnics (KOPO) has played a pivotal role in the supply of technical HR. Furthermore, Korea laid an institutional basis for comprehensive support for vocational counseling, training, and employment placement through AEACIW and expanded vocational education and training projects to strengthen "customized employment" for women. Based on this, KOPO is promoting women's re-entry into society and helping economic independence by developing various TVET courses for career-interrupted women and linking them to jobs.
Second, as a public institution under the Ministry of Employment and Labor and suitable for local-based industries, the case of strengthening HRD for women of KOPO has a ripple effect on leading, systematically managing, and utilizing private vocational education institutions.
This case study used the concept of a logical model for the courses for women at KOPO, a representative institution of public TVET. The logic model visualizes a performance-oriented policy program, its impact theory, and the intervention process theory (McLaughlin & Jordan, 1999). The general basic structure of the model consists of inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes (Rosi et al., 2004). The women's TVET courses by KOPO can contribute to sharing cases of HRD for women and evaluating policy performance by schematically showing the logical connection to performance through activities (Noh & Lee, 2012).
As a result, the input of HRD for women through public TVET is a total of 85 courses currently opened to train 1,200 people, reaching up to more than 10,000 through women's specialized degrees and non-degree courses for more than ten years. The budget is 2.7 billion won per year, and the number of teachers and curriculum management personnel reaches 170 per year. Degree courses are specialized in fashion and design and medical information, and non-degree short-term courses with 3 to 6 months are designed based on the needs analysis of industry and consumers in the region: coding, 3D printing, after-school computer guidance, apartment facility management, cooking, clothing repair and sewing and leather craft, nursing care workers and Internet start-ups. The outputs showed 111 percent of short-term non-degree training and 59.6 percent of employment over the past three years, while the degree course showed a high employment rate of more than 70 percent in the 4th industry convergence, 3D printing, after-school computer, and computer accounting practice. The output was to revitalize the local industry by strengthening career support for women through vocational education infrastructure in each region. In addition, the Women Reemployment Support Center under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family created cooperative work that contributed to the local companies' growth by fostering female HR through TVET.
Women's HRD through TVET in the short term implies the elevation of women's competency through level-wise courses for women with diverse academic backgrounds, incomes, and ages. Also, in the mid and long-term, systematic support career path design should be provided for women's re-entry and competitiveness through women-specific job change education.