Skills and Training in Hierarchical Capitalism: The Rise and Fall of Vocational Training in South Korea

Labour Market Dualisation and Social Protection in South Korea: Searching for a New Social Contract and Growth Model

“…For instance, in addition to effective blind spots in social insurance discussed earlier, illegal sub-contracting has continued after a Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that forbade certain subcontracting in the automobile sector on the basis it was illegal dispatch work [41,42]. Similarly, although legislation banned the practice of exclusive sub-contracting, which is typically the most exploitative and involves much precarious SME employment, it too persists [43]. However, more recently, the plight of irregular workers and, more generally, concerns over inequality and fairness in Korean society have become salient issues in electoral politics.…”

Dualisation, education and the knowledge economy: Comparing Germany and South Korea

“…However, these initiatives neither reversed the decline in employer engagement, nor did they improve the appeal of VET for parents and students. Large firms have reduced their reliance on vocational skills by extensive automation (with 855 robots per 10,000 employees in manufacturing, compared to 346 in Germany; International Federation of Robotics, 2020), in addition to aggressive sub-contracting in the country's highly hierarchical production regime (Fleckenstein et al, 2023). By contrast, 'squeezed' SMEs, with little capacity to train themselves, continue to rely on vocational training schools, which struggle to recruit high-achieving students and are thought to provide poor skills.…”

“…In the 1990s, the transition into the knowledge economy intensified the pressures from firms and parents on VET‐focused skill formation, and conflict not only ‘surfaced’ in Korea but also Germany. The importance of firms is well‐recognised in skill formation and the political economy more generally (Busemeyer & Trampusch, 2012; Hall & Soskice, 2001); and in both countries, large firms with greater need for high skills and reduced demand for VET have become increasingly influential (Busemeyer, 2012; Durazzi, 2019; Fleckenstein et al, 2023): not only has this changed the dynamics in the business sector, it has also fundamentally altered the institutional environment within which government operates. However, the political economy literature fails to appreciate the pressures that parents and students have placed on this environment.…”

“…Hence, Korea continues to show the second largest training gap between small and large firms in the OECD world (OECD, 2020). Clearly, the inter‐firm cooperation needed for collective skill formation does not exist in Korea; and neither government nor fragmented employers' associations possess the strategic capacity to promote non‐exploitative coordination between large firms and SMEs (Fleckenstein et al, 2023).…”