Changing Standards
Approximately 3,000 job seekers in South Korea will have a chance this year to get a job in a public organization via the new National Competency Standards (NCS). The new standards are a revised hiring tool that forms a part of state policy to reform the country's hiring process.
Unlike the existing method, which has driven Korean society into an excessive over-specialization resume-based competition about personal background, school, language proficiency, and general work-related experience, this new method emphasizes applicants’ practical experience and knowhow as well as the ability to tackle challenges related to field work. It will also evaluate communication skills and global outlook focusing on personal work experience.
The extreme efforts in Korean society to load more qualifications onto one's resume has actually made it more difficult for most job applicants to get the right job and for recruiting firms to find the right workers. The revised hiring tool measures the required knowledge, necessary skills, and essential accomplishments demanded by various industries and businesses and systematizes it to be utilized as evaluation data.
An official of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance explained that the NCS will help college graduates to be engaged in actual work right after graduation, and lessen the training period necessary for them to join the country's workforce.
From the first half of this year, some 30 public institutions will use the NCS for screening tests and interviews to examine potential candidates. The Korean Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and the Korea Expressway Corporation also plan on early adoption of the NCS. All together, about 3,000 new appointments out of a total of 17,000 new hires in the public sector will be filled using this new NCS method.
The Korean government will offer a consulting program for public offices to evaluate jobs for the required abilities and to develop recruitment tools to fill those positions. Also, it will educate human resources officers about the new hiring process and give them new recruitment manuals. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Employment and Labor will work together on a project to organize a consultative group to support workplaces.
The government expects the new NCS-based employment practices to inspire private enterprises to change the way they hire people. They hope to play a leading role in leading this change.
The Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs said, “If a public agency can attract a talented workforce using the NCS, we can accelerate overseas expansion of the national project to the Middle East and other countries.”