Aid received for vocational training

Occupational and Technical Education and Training
 
1 Overview
 
Occupational and technical education and training took up a significant portion of the official development assistance (ODA) provided to Korea in the early phase of the decades of development, drawing much cooperation from a wide range of sources. These sources included not only international organizations such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Labor Organization (ILO), but also multilateral development agencies like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The governments of Germany, Japan, the United States, and Belgium, as well, offered valuable support. In particular, Germany stands out as a major source of bilateral support in this regard.

Occupational and technical education and training forms a crucial area of international development cooperation, as the transfer of intermediate technology, functions, and institutions from advanced economies to the public sector of recipient countries helps the latter develop and enhance human and technical capacities for development visibly. Though the absolute monetary value of the international cooperation provided for this purpose was small compared to that provided in other areas, such support nonetheless played an indispensable role in enabling Korea to secure the competencies necessary for its development.
 
 
2. Details
 
International cooperation for occupational and technical education and training began when Korea had almost no institutions, facilities, equipment, etc. to provide such services on its own. International cooperation in this regard, in other words, began with the transfer of not only hardware equipment and machinery, but also educational and training curricula and systems from the donor countries. Korea remained almost exclusively dependent on these foreign elements for occupational and technical education and training in the early days of development.

The first modern institution of vocational training in Korea was the Central Vocational Training Institute (CVTI), created with support from the UNDP and the ILO after the Korean government enacted the Vocational Training Act in 1967. Korea continued to receive technical resources, equipment, consultation, and advice from other countries, including Germany, Japan, the United States, and Belgium, for the establishment of additional training institutes afterward.

Moreover, the ADB and the IBRD provided development loans for the purchase of the equipment and other materials required by various local training institutes in Korea. Loans received from these multilateral organizations in and after the mid-1970s helped Korea to expand its capacity for occupational training at an astonishing pace.
 
<Development Aid for Occupational and Technical Education and Training>
(Unit: USD 1,000)
 

Source: Current Status of Occupational Capability Development Projects, Ministry of Labor, July 2003.

Source: Korea International Cooperation Agency. 2004. Study on Development Aid and Cooperation for South Korea: Size, Scope and Exemplary Effects. Seoul.