Beating 300-to-1 Odds to Become a Youngest Woodworker... The Unexpected Reason Behind Choosing This Over Teaching

Cho Woo-ui (28) works at a memory semiconductor plant in Icheon, a workplace currently dubbed a "dream job." After entering a Meister high school to learn technical skills, Woo-ui won the National Skills Competition and joined a large heavy industries company in Ulsan. He later competed as a national representative in the WorldSkills International competition, winning a gold medal in plumbing, before landing his current job and establishing himself in the field earlier than his peers. Visiting his alma mater every year after graduation to help juniors with hands-on practice, Woo-ui shared that he can feel a shift in how young people view technical jobs. He explained that rather than treating them as a last resort due to employment difficulties, they see them as jobs that allow them to build their own skills and expertise.

Bang Yoon-jae (24), who majored in physical education in college and once dreamed of becoming a teacher, has been learning field work as the youngest member of a carpentry team for a year. Having broken through a 300-to-1 competition rate to join the carpentry team, Yoon-jae says he chose carpentry to survive with irreplaceable skills that cannot be easily substituted. Lee Hak-hyun (32), a former singer-songwriter, also switched careers to become a tile setter after seeing AI naturally handle both composition and even vocals. He judged that tile work, which requires millimeter-level precision, is an irreplaceable skill that only humans can perform.

AI and robots are rapidly replacing human labor. According to a Bank of Korea report, 94% of youth jobs lost over the past four years occurred in industries with high AI exposure. As office and professional jobs—once favored by young people as stable careers—find it difficult to escape the impact of AI, the criteria for a good job are shifting.

At a time when young people's perspectives on technical jobs are changing, is our society properly supporting their choices? Roh Hye-yeon, a former airline flight attendant working as a tile grouter in Australia, says that even if she wears neon-colored work clothes in Korea that would make her conscious of other people's gazes, no one cares in Australia. In fact, she noted that society highly values women working in technical jobs. She added that her pay is at a satisfying level—enough in a single week to match a service job salary in Korea.

Experts say that to properly nurture blue-collar jobs beyond just major conglomerate production roles or a few positions with high allowances, wage levels, working conditions, and job security must be reexamined.

This week on SBS <News Story>, we meet young people striving to acquire "irreplaceable hand skills" to listen to their voices and examine whether our society is ready to recognize the value of skilled labor.

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