Labor ministry opens STEP learning platform to new partner institutions

The labor ministry said Friday that Korea University of Technology and Education, or KoreaTech, is recruiting new partner institutions for the learning management system of STEP, its public online vocational training platform, with applications open from Oct. 2 to Oct. 23.

The program, run by KoreaTech's Online Lifelong Education Center together with the ministry, is aimed at training institutions, companies, public organizations and vocational high schools that want to operate online vocational education. Selected institutions will be announced in November.

STEP, short for Smart Training Education Platform, offers about 4,500 open-market content items, including 162 on basic AI skills and AI+X, and lets institutions build training courses or run revenue projects using their own material. It also provides live interactive seminars, online assessment, team projects and mobile learning.

Since it opened in October 2019, the system has been supplied to 1,333 institutions and has hosted 31,667 courses, with more than 1.35 million people using it for education and training as of September 2026.

At Gyeongbuk Machinery Technical High School, the number of STEP users rose to 1,540 as of July 2026 from 1,047 in 2025, as the school linked its year-by-year major and certification study roadmaps to the platform. Hana Micron developed 20 public content items in Vietnamese reflecting local demand in Vietnam in cooperation with KoreaTech, drawing more than 2,300 participants and an 86 percent completion rate.

The information session also featured cases from the Korea Youth Counseling and Welfare Development Institute, the Suncheon Heavy Equipment Academy and Chonbuk National University Hospital, which have used STEP for online courses, blended training and in-house education systems.

"The vocational training environment is changing rapidly with AI and digital transformation," said Han Yeon-hee, director of the Online Lifelong Education Center. "We will actively support STEP so that it can back the AX and DX of various fields, including training institutions, companies, public organizations and vocational high schools, and establish itself as a vocational training platform where anyone can build the skills they need."

Further details on the recruitment schedule and how to apply are available on the STEP website.