Korean high school where 1 in 4 graduates heads straight to Samsung Electronics
Students at Chungbuk Semiconductor High School / Courtesy of Chungbuk Office of Education
Even at vocational high schools, principals who don't have to worry about their graduates finding jobs are a rare breed these days. Seo Un-suk, principal of Chungbuk Semiconductor High School, is one of them.
“We have 96 students in each grade, and more than 100 semiconductor companies have signed agreements to hire our graduates,” Seo said. “There is no need to worry about finding jobs.”
Seo beamed as he led a tour of the school. Unprecedented global demand for semiconductors, he said, has brought the school growing attention from companies both in Korea and overseas.
“We do not have enough students to send even one graduate to each company,” he said.
Located in North Chungcheong Province, the school began as a conventional vocational high school. In 2008, it adopted its current name, and two years later, it was designated Korea’s first Meister high school specializing in semiconductors.
Since then, it has established itself as a leading training ground for the industry’s future workforce, building expertise in semiconductor technology that school officials say is unrivaled among Korean high schools.
The school now sends about 20 graduates a year to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Last year alone, 23 students secured jobs at Samsung Electronics. School officials said the graduate employment rate has never fallen below 95 percent since the school received Meister status in 2010.
Behind that record, including the placement of more than a quarter of its graduates at two of Korea’s biggest and most prestigious companies, is a curriculum built firmly around hands-on training.
The school has six laboratories equipped with advanced machinery that replicates the semiconductor manufacturing process. School officials said the facilities are larger and, in some respects, better equipped than those at many university laboratories in Korea.
Classes are conducted using production-grade equipment donated by SK hynix and employed in key stages of semiconductor manufacturing, including photolithography, etching, thin-film deposition, assembly and testing.
The school recently received an additional 10 billion won ($6.4 million) worth of cutting-edge machinery from SK hynix and is constructing a dedicated building to house and operate the new equipment.
Using the same kind of advanced equipment found in the industry, students form teams of four or five at the beginning of each semester to design and fabricate semiconductor projects. They compile the results of their research and practical work, present them at the end of the semester and have their projects evaluated by outside industry experts. The entire process is shared on YouTube so that other students can use it as a reference.
“The level of achievement is so high that people from semiconductor companies sometimes come away from the presentations with new ideas or possible solutions to problems at their own workplaces,” said Kang Su-jin, a teacher at the school.
“And the students can put that experience to use as soon as they enter the workforce.”
All students live in dormitories throughout their three years at the school, helping them develop teamwork skills and adapt to workplace culture. The bonds they form often continue after graduation and extend into the companies where they work.
Graduates already working in the industry sometimes return to the school to mentor current students. They also help younger alumni settle in once they join the same companies.
School officials said Chungbuk Semiconductor High School has earned a reputation within the industry for producing graduates who are not only technically skilled and ready for work, but also capable of collaborating and functioning well as part of a team.
Teachers receive semiconductor training as well, with support ranging from placements at semiconductor companies to specialized professional-development programs. They also conduct research alongside their students.
“The workload is heavy, but we are constantly getting calls asking when a teaching position might open or whether the school plans to hold a separate recruitment round,” Seo said.
“Concerns over students challenging teachers’ authority have become a major social issue elsewhere, but that is not a problem here. The students could not be more eager to learn in class,” Kang said.
“Working with them can be genuinely exhilarating. They make teaching enjoyable and give me an enormous sense of fulfillment.”
The school also receives a steady stream of benchmarking requests from specialized vocational high schools across the country that are preparing to seek semiconductor Meister school status or open semiconductor departments of their own.
“Our students are pursuing their ambitions of becoming semiconductor specialists through a curriculum tailored to the industry,” Seo said. “We will devote our educational resources to instilling in them the pride that they will one day lead an industry vital to Korea’s future.”
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.