By Chung Hyun-chae
Vocational colleges have been stepping up their efforts to nurture highly skilled manpower in diverse industrial fields by launching customized departments and majors.
“In order to meet diversified industrial demand, a growing number of colleges have been running customized departments,” Ha Jeong-ho, an official at the Korean Council for University College Education, said.
“Given that vocational colleges are closely related to local industries, they have been making a lot of contributions to the industrial and economic development of the country by providing great workforce, especially amid the high youth unemployment rate.”
Keimyung College University in Daegu has three unique majors: hand and nail art, beauty, golf course management and horticulture.
“Established in 1962, our college has been strong in physical and art education,” Jang Sung-young, chief of the strategic planning department at the school, said.
The university launched a hand and nail major in 2011 after signing a partnership agreement with SopoongN, a company specializing in the nail art industry. In that year the school created the Ohmoosun beauty major after signing an agreement with Ohmoosun Beauty Company, a well-known beauty enterprise.
“We have provided programs tailored to those companies,” he said.
According to Jang, the school annually sends 30 students from each of the two majors to the two companies after they graduate. Students from the golf course and horticulture major also easily get a job as golf caddie or landscape expert, he added.
Gangneung Yeongdong University in Ganwon Province also offers unique departments, including the department of forest welfare, and equestrian and wedding industries.
“In line with the region’s focus on the tourism industry, our school has been putting efforts to cultivate human resources for the industry,” the school’s Provost Kim Je-hong said.
According to him, the school has made Chinese speaking a compulsory subject two years ago with the aim of sending students to China that has created enormous demand for tourism.
Meanwhile, there is the only nationwide department at the Korea Lift College in Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province.
Established in 2010, the school has launched elevator-related majors to produce experts in the field.
The majors are: lift design, installation, and safety and maintenance.
“In Korea there are about 800 medium- and small-sized elevator businesses that are in need of human resources, which means that almost all 320 graduates successfully find a job every year,” a school official Kim Chang-soo said. “We will keep fostering as much excellent skilled technical manpower as possible.”