Low Employment Rates Prompt Regional Universities to Create Customized Majors for Survival

[Anchor]

Graduates of universities in the Gangwon region are seeing both their employment rates and job retention rates fall below the national average. Due to a lack of local jobs, young people are leaving for the capital area. In response, regional universities are establishing new majors tailored to industrial demand to tackle the employment issue.

Kim Yi-gon from G1 Broadcasting reports.


[Reporter]

According to the Ministry of Education, the employment rate for university graduates in the Gangwon region stands at 67.2 percent.

This is 2.3 percentage points lower than the national average.

Even when graduates manage to find jobs, the rate at which they retain them for a year stops at 80.4 percent, also trailing the national average.

The scarcity of job categories favored by the younger generation is leading to an outflow to the capital area.

[Jung Hee-sung, Deputy Manager, Employment Support Team, Gangwon State Business Agency: "For university graduates, the types of jobs are very diverse. Since there aren't many jobs where they can find immediate employment tailored to those specific job duties, it is only natural that they turn their eyes outside the province."]experimental

Thirty percent of employed individuals within the province are concentrated in agriculture, simple manual labor, and the service sector.

Universities in the Gangwon region are newly establishing customized departments tailored to job trends and industrial demand.

Kangwon National University has established a graduate program in Defense Semiconductors for the first time in South Korea.

Under a structure where government funding nurtures 12 specialized personnel, defense companies will hire them after graduation.

[Kim Ik-hyun, Head of Digital Military Science Department, Kangwon National University: "The culmination of IT is heading toward AI right now. Since design-focused capabilities to create semiconductors that can house those technologies are being built centering around Chuncheon, it will significantly impact not just the university but also the development of the regional economy..."]

Hallym University is also establishing the province's first Glocal MICE Department starting next year.

With demand surging to the point where students pursuing a double major exceed 180, the university decided to create an official department.

[Yoon Eun-joo, Professor of MICE Planning and Management, Hallym University: "We are envisioning opportunities for the personnel produced by Hallym University to settle in the region and directly manage such events. Because the number of companies in the MICE industry continues to increase, employment opportunities are boundless and we are currently seeing high employment rates as well."]

Local governments are also stepping up by operating the Gangwon Defense Venture Center and attracting MICE events following the establishment of the Gangneung Convention Center, activating an industry-academia-government cooperative framework.

(Video Reporter: Shin Hyun-guk from G1 Broadcasting, CG: Lee Min-seok from G1 Broadcasting)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.