Labor ministry moves to widen job-skill certificates to youth work experience

The labor ministry said it proposed revising the enforcement rules of the National Lifelong Vocational Skills Development Act to let youth work-experience records and business-income payment data count toward official recognition of job skills.

The recognition standard currently draws on employment history held in the job-skills information system. The change also folds overseas employment history into a broader category covering global talent development programs, and redesigns the job-skills recognition certificate to reflect the expanded career fields.

The ministry said the revision aims to close gaps in how the current system operates, so that a person's job skills can be certified with more credibility and less paperwork.

The employment portal and job-skills information system, which let users certify careers and qualifications in one place, had issued 14,000 documents in the month after a Sept. 10 briefing.

Kangwon Land accepted them as proof of qualifications and experience for its 2026 intake and received 62 submissions, including from 20 applicants in the first round of hiring.

The system currently links 24 categories of job-skills bank information. By 2027 the ministry plans to include freelance work history, private-sector certifications, Korean history proficiency test results, university education records and language test scores, fields where young jobseekers most often need documentation.

Public comment on the draft runs through Nov. 9, with submissions accepted online through the national participation portal or delivered in writing to the employment and labor minister.