Ministry of Employment and Labor and Korea Labor Foundation recognize 5 individuals, 12 companies
Career counseling, job training and work experience programs help mid-career workers return to workforce
Firms extend training to subcontractors, count participation hours as paid work time
A 48-year-old who closed his restaurant after more than a decade in business due to COVID-19 reinvented himself as a semiconductor engineer after completing career counseling and job training. A 54-year-old former bank employee whose career was cut short by the Asian financial crisis returned to office accounting work after gaining hands-on experience and earning a professional certification.
Both are examples of mid-career workers successfully reconnecting with the labor market by matching their backgrounds to regional industry demand.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Labor Foundation held the 21st Mid-Career Employment Emphasis Week ceremony Wednesday at CCMM Building in Seoul, honoring five individuals and 12 companies for outstanding contributions to mid-career employment. This year's emphasis week runs from Monday through Friday, and the ceremony was held under the theme "Connecting regions, nurturing mid-career workers."
Choi Myeong-cheol, 48, who received the minister's award, closed his restaurant and sought career development counseling at a Gyeonggi Province mid-career employment center to map out a new path. After completing a four-day semiconductor short course and a four-week specialized semiconductor training program at Korea Polytechnics' semiconductor convergence campus, he now works as an engineer at Seonlin, where he disassembles and services semiconductor vacuum valves.
Another minister's award recipient, Shin Jeong-suk, 54, worked in the financial sector for more than a decade before the Asian financial crisis interrupted her career. After raising children and taking on various roles — including librarian, instructor and barista — she enrolled in a mid-career support program at the Daegu mid-career employment center to return to office administration and accounting. She spent three months gaining hands-on office experience, earned a computerized accounting certification and was hired by one of the companies that participated in the work-experience program.
In the corporate category, honorees were selected for working with regional institutions to support mid-career hiring and workplace adjustment. Haeyangongsa, a Busan-based cargo packaging and inspection company, partnered with the Busan Employment Center, the Busan mid-career employment center and local inspection firms to design a training curriculum and organize site visits and job briefings. The company was recognized for ensuring that job seekers fully understood port inspection work before being hired.
The Seoul Metropolitan Village Bus Transport Business Association introduced a mid-career work-experience program to address a shortage of transport workers. Hiring through the program grew from 10 people across six transport companies last year to 20 people across 14 companies this year. Sinan Transport Foundation also ran training programs with a mid-career employment center, including a passenger ferry crew development course, and provided graduates with hands-on field experience.
Goodmorning Hospital of Baeksong Medical Foundation, selected as an outstanding operator of reemployment support services, established a joint support framework with partner company Korea S-Way that covers both primary and subcontracted workers. The hospital set up a joint career development support committee, extended services to subcontractor employees, counted all training hours as paid working time and adjusted work schedules to help field workers participate.
Kolmar Korea designated its talent development team as the dedicated unit overseeing reemployment support services and revised its employment rules to give the program a formal institutional basis. The company combined eight hours of training with job placement counseling and adjusted scheduling to accommodate the working hours and commute times of employees at its facilities nationwide, including those in Sejong and Bucheon.
Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said mid-career employment is "no longer optional but essential" and pledged to strengthen AI-based career planning, specialized mid-career training at Korea Polytechnics and mid-career work-experience programs. He added that the ministry would provide an integrated service in which a dedicated employment center counselor handles everything from in-depth consultations to job placement and career development.
Park Jong-pil, secretary-general of the Korea Labor Foundation, said the foundation would strengthen career development support so workers can review their career trajectories and prepare for the future while still employed, and would expand corporate consulting to mid-sized and small and medium-sized enterprises to help reemployment support services take root on the ground.
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