1950년대 기술인력양성책의 추진과 한계

Abstract

This article notes what technical manpower training policies were established and developed at the government, schools, and industrial sites in the 1950s after the liberation. After the liberation, the military and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry sought to develop and pursue a short-term training-oriented technical training plan to increase the operating rate of the production sector. Due to the lack of technical manpower, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry first operated mechanical technology and mining technical training centers. Second, the Industrial Technician test was conducted for a short period of time when there were no other certificates except for educational diplomas. After the Korean War, in order for the corporate technical personnels to lead the provision of practical training and retraining for technical personnel in industrial sites. The aid authorities attempted ① the strengthening of the practice for vocational education ② the retraining of workers in the nearby area ③ the retraining of teachers in vocational schools. This was for the purposes of enhancing the effectiveness of aid and economic reconstruction. However, it was not easy to settle this technical training system under high unemployment and people's aspirations to go to universities. It was difficult to change the atmosphere of Korean society in a short period of time, preferring to go to university over finding a job. The goal of vocational education and training was not for the higher education but to get employed. Hence, it was necessary to ‘grow‘ the industry in order to set a firm footing in the vocational education and training institution. Without the growth of the industry, it was difficult for technical skills to immediately lead to employment. Technical skills were harder to be recognized than university diplomas in the labor market due to the industrial structure, which was challenging to become skilled, get hired, and move up the social ladder after getting technical training and technician certificates. Attempts to change the technical training system intended by the aid authorities in the 1950s seemed to have failed. As a result, since the 1960s, technical manpower training policy has been transformed from educational to labor policy in character.