Korea
Korean originalTranslated
Lifelong and vocational education accounted for 1.4% of Education Ministry's 2024 initial budget
Lifelong and vocational education accounted for about 1.4% of the Education Ministry's 2024 initial budget, approximately one sixty-first of the amount allocated to preschool, primary and secondary education.
A report on national human resource development strategy in an era of triple transition, released by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training on the 18th, put lifelong and vocational education funding at 1.2162 trillion won out of the Education Ministry's 89.5664 trillion won initial budget for 2024. Preschool, primary and secondary education accounted for 73.729 trillion won, or 82.32%, and higher education for 14.4772 trillion won, or 16.16%.
Lifelong and vocational education accounted for about 1.4% of the ministry's initial budget. Its allocation was approximately one sixty-first of the budget for preschool, primary and secondary education.
The figures cover only the Education Ministry's initial budget. They exclude the Ministry of Employment and Labor's vocational training budget and local governments' education and training budgets; the report recommended examining relevant ministries' and local governments' budgets together to assess education and training funding across life stages.
Of the 1.2162 trillion won allocated to lifelong and vocational education, programs promoting industry-academia-research cooperation accounted for 813.2 billion won, or 66.86%. Funding to build a lifelong vocational education system was 72.4 billion won, so the total lifelong and vocational education allocation cannot be treated as money spent directly on adult lifelong learning.
The researchers proposed a talent development system spanning people's lives in response to concurrent demographic changes, advances in technologies such as AI, and the climate crisis. Hwang Seong-su, vice president of the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, called for a presidential committee to integrate human resource policy planning, implementation and evaluation, supported by a dedicated headquarters.
Proposed financial support measures included improving the lifelong learning account system and gradually expanding eligibility for lifelong education vouchers. The report also proposed pursuing a tentatively named 'competency development benefit' to cover living expenses and training costs during learning periods.