[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

A bakery and confectionery program at Woosong University College of Information, run in partnership with Daejeon's local bakery Sungsimdang, will be expanded into a full academic department starting next year. The employment-linked curriculum has drawn praise as a model for systematically training skilled workers, but sustaining students' motivation over a longer program has emerged as a new challenge.

According to Woosong University College of Information on Monday, the existing one-year "Sungsimdang Meister Class" — commonly known as the Sungsimdang track — will be restructured into a two-year regular degree program called the Department of Sungsimdang beginning with the 2027 academic year. Students sitting college entrance exams this year will be the first able to apply directly to the department with the goal of securing employment at Sungsimdang.

The restructuring was driven by the strong employment outcomes of the existing Sungsimdang track and a desire to further strengthen the framework for training specialized talent in partnership with local industry.

Woosong University College of Information and Rosso Co., the company that operates Sungsimdang, signed a customized education agreement in 2021 and have run the Sungsimdang track together since.

The curriculum centers on intensive instruction by full-time professors and a four-week field practicum, and operates as an employment-linked program in which graduates move directly into hiring.

Sungsimdang representatives have also visited the campus to introduce the company's history, core values and organizational culture, helping students adapt more readily to the workplace.

According to the university, roughly 20 to 30 students have completed the program each year from the inaugural cohort in 2021 through the sixth cohort this year, with an average of more than 90 percent going on to be hired by Sungsimdang.

Building on those results, the university plans to extend the program to two years to develop students' professional competencies more systematically and strengthen its foundation for training specialized baking and confectionery talent in collaboration with a local company.

However, extending the curriculum from one year to two raises the challenge of sustaining students' career focus and motivation over a longer period.

Seo Sang-wook, a professor in the baking and confectionery department at Woosong University College of Information, said the key question will be how well the program can keep students consistently engaged in their job preparation over two years, given that the longer curriculum now requires students to commit to a career path as early as their final year of high school.

Education circles have taken note of so-called employment-linked departments — in which universities and local companies jointly tie instruction to hiring — as a new model for boosting the competitiveness of regional universities. Companies can reliably secure job-ready talent while students map out their careers while still enrolled. The outcomes of the Sungsimdang department are expected to influence other industry-academia partnership models across the country.

Meanwhile, Sungsimdang continues to draw long lines of customers waiting for the bakery to open, even amid the current heat wave.

Its consistent release of crowd-pleasing new products — including the popular fruit sirutteok cake — along with its reputation for taste and value, are widely cited as the keys to its enduring success.


rainbow@heraldcorp.com