Throughout the 1990s decade however, the South Korean labor force changed to raise new challenges, such as the aging of the population, the declining rates of the young population, and the resulting shortage of skilled labor force. In such a setting then, the vocational training system was extended to promote lifelong training for the employees, and this took the form of the Vocational Competency Development Program.

Despite the advances made, much still remains to be done, as South Korea is among the countries with the lowest investments in worker education. According to a study of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), South Korea invested 0.05 per cent of its gross domestic product in employee training; Germany for instance invested 0.37 per cent and Austria invested 0.40 per cent (Lee and Jeon, 2009).

Aside from the increasing education of the labor force, the economic development of South Korea can...
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