"Studying 12 Hours a Day, Even Military-Style Live-In Training"... Where Desperate Young People Turn [News File]

"There is a welding sequence from number 1 to 39...."

Lectures begin at 9:00 AM, and after finishing training at 9:00 PM, they start studying again. This place where people receive training while room and board are provided is not a boarding school or an academy for repeat college entrance exam students, but a live-in employment "boot camp" where job seekers stay. With the youth unemployment crisis being severe, live-in job preparation facilities have even emerged. Just how severe is the youth employment problem, which is always described as serious? From January to August of this year, the number of employed youth in their 20s decreased by 5.6% compared to the same period last year. Comparing the same periods, this drop is the largest since the IMF foreign exchange crisis. A total of 193,000 people decreased this year, which is more severe than the 142,000 decline in 2009 during the global financial crisis and the 111,000 drop in 2020 right after COVID-19. According to announcements by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, while the overall employment rate is similar to last year's, only the youth employment rate has dropped by 1 percentage point instead. Furthermore, landing a first job takes 1.3 months longer compared to 10 years ago. Given this situation, in April of this year, the government injected 988 billion won in supplementary budget funds to solve the youth employment crisis and planned the "K-New Deal Academy." Through this, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and about 50 companies are running job-skills training programs helpful for employment. The place I visited was LS Future Institute in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. It is a 3-month live-in course where participants stay at the LS Group training center to learn various skills necessary for jobs, such as coding, report-writing methods, and interview techniques. Since they spend 24 hours a day here covering room and board while focusing solely on finding a job, their skills naturally improve quickly.

[Kim Yu-bin (27) / Suwon, Gyeonggi Province: (It has been about a month since you entered the live-in program, do you feel things have gotten easier compared to the beginning?) Yes, when it came to handling data, at first I could only handle it at just about the Excel level, but now I think I am at a level where I can completely break down data and extract what I want from within that data.]

From the perspective of companies, because they can design the training programs directly, there is the advantage of being able to foster talent equipped with customized job competencies.

[Lee Woo-seop / Head of HRD Planning Team, LS Future Institute: We are operating programs so that competencies recently demanded by companies, such as AI utilization skills, can be enhanced through this program. From the company's perspective, I think it is meaningful in that we can preemptively secure prepared talent.]

Even after classes end, they continue their own studies in study rooms—such as language study, certificate preparation, and project discussions—so days here often wrap up only after midnight. Kim Young-sik, who came from Wonju, Gangwon Province, said he is approaching this program with a desperate mindset.

[Kim Young-sik (32) / Wonju, Gangwon Province: I should say I am a bit more desperate. Because, well, there is age. Three months is even shorter than military service, and going all out for 3 months feels like it will prevent any regrets later.]

Cha Seil, from Nam-gu, Busan, already has 6 years of work experience in a manufacturing human resources team. However, thinking that AI competency is essential in a rapidly changing industry, he voluntarily entered the boot camp as a job recruit once again. The job market he returned to has changed a lot.

[Cha Seil (31) / Nam-gu, Busan: You can tell even from job postings, as they ask about AI competencies, such as what you have achieved by utilizing AI. I am approaching this with a heavy heart, thinking of it as my final challenge. Our ultimate goal for all of us is successful employment, and it is everyone's wish to achieve that ultimate purpose after equipping ourselves with all work competencies.] A "boot camp" is originally a military term meaning a recruit training center. Everyone entered by voluntarily calling themselves "employment recruits." The average age of the employment recruits who entered LS Future Institute is 28. Over 100 people applied from all over the country, and 31 of them were selected. The competition ratio exceeded 3 to 1. When I visited, 4 people had successfully found jobs and left the facility after about a month of admission, leaving only 27 recruits behind. Experts pay attention to the symbolism held by the term "boot camp."

[Lee Joo-hee / Professor of Sociology, Ewha Womans University: It means that (boot camps) require entering like the military and learning all day long. It feels like the employment competition has turned into an employment war.]

This is interpreted to mean that "live-in job preparation" is no different from the process of becoming a soldier who can survive in an employment battlefield. The young people who visited the boot camp were pondering and preparing for their futures more fiercely than anyone else. However, on the other hand, while looking at those sacrificing their youth to prepare for jobs and the statistics on the freezing labor market, I thought that what is most needed above all is a job market where such an extreme form of live-in job preparation is not needed in the first place.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.