Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

Vocational training system for skilled workforce has been highlighted as one ofthe key driving forces of South Korea's economic development. South Korea is well known for adopting a government-led vocational training strategy to make sure the supply of a skilled workforce according to the 1st--7th five-year economic developmentplans. This paper examines the main features and developmental changes of this strategy from the 1960s to the 1990s and suggests a set of important lessons for the design and implementation of vocational training policies. Vocational training policy also was led by the government and complemented by private sector. By providing training program through the establishment of public training institutes, the government managed the supply of skills. While the government has consistently expanded and controlled the vocational training system for meeting the needs of industry, the principle system was the compulsory in-plant training system, in which itwas obligatory for large companies to provide training program for their workforce or alternatively contribute the training promotion fund. The initial stages of this system in the 1970s were considered as successful in terms of raising numbers of trainees withinindustry. However the numbers later fell dramatically in the 1980s after the government reformed its policy. Many employers resisted against the burden of training obligation and levy. Although there were still unsolved limitations of the government-led vocational training system, South Korean vocational training system before the 1997 IMF economic crisis has contributed systematically to the transformation of industry and to economic development.