Government`s IT Education Is Not Substantial

``I was ashamed because friends without the government sponsored web master education created better homepage than me, although I had the government sponsored education.`` said Mr. P (college graduate).

``Demand for web master is high. Although the information-technology (IT) industry is well developed, I don`t understand why the government focuses on the elementary level training.`` said a chief of the personnel management of A Internet firm.

People with government sponsored IT education are not welcome at the job market. They do not have advanced expertise that the IT industry needs. Instead, the government have elementary level education which is outdated by a year or two.

The government says that there is no problem in training of the IT human resources as well as supply in terms of quantity. However, IT firms still complain about the lack of human resources, pointing out the shortage of experts in the field.

The reason for the imbalance between demand and supply for the IT human resources is that the IT education supported by the government is quantity oriented which focuses on the elementary and intermediate courses, whereas the IT industry seeks for the advanced expertise in human resources.

According to the survey result of the Federation of the Korean Information Industries (president Yoon Jong-Yong), IT education program supported by the government consists of 42 percent of the elementary course (under 3 months) and 32.8 percent of the intermediate course (3-6 months). Most of the education is concentrated on the elementary course. Advanced course, in which students learn expert knowledge for the employment for more than 6 months, was only 25.1 percent.

The survey result includes 3,515 courses, such as the reemployment course for the unemployed as well as the course for the incumbents offered by the Ministry of Labor, e-commercial transaction course as well as the management revolution course offered by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy, and the IT professional education course (general and internationally authorized license) by the Ministry of Information and Communication.

It is also pointed out that the content of education is only the level of cultivation from the IT industry`s viewpoint. Of 130,693 produced trainees, 49,652 people will receive education for the use of Internet and the homepage production and management. Many middle and high school students can perform these levels of skills, and it is almost impossible to find a job with these skills.

Song Min-Taek, chief of the personnel management of the Daeum Communication, pointed out that the web master course is not helpful for the employment because web master course is already full of human resources. Mr K, who graduated from a college in 1997 majoring in accounting, attended the Linux web master course for 4 months, but he failed to get a job even after having had interviews with 20 companies because there were too many trainees in this field. Mr. K said that although he trusted the course because it was supported by the government, the course was not helpful for the employment.

The Federation of the Korean Information Industries said that it was problematic to divide the supporting function for the IT human resources into three ministries –Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Information and Communication. It also pointed out that the training for the IT human resources acquires a comprehensive and systematic adjustment management at the level of the pan-ministry.

Cheon Kwang-Am iam@donga.com