Jobless after College ???

Quality of university education questioned

Lee, a 30-year-old computer engineering graduate, has been jobless since he graduated from a university in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, more than a year ago. There seemed to be a lot of job openings in the information technology industry, but for some reason, he did not feel he was qualified for most of them. In some interviews, I couldnt answer technical questions about computer engineering, he said. Universities and colleges churn out nearly 60,000 graduates in IT-related majors every year. But IT firms complain of difficulty in finding the right staff. There is a mismatch between the skills of job applicants and the skills that we need, said a human-resources official at Hyundai Powertech, a local maker of auto parts. His company, which mostly hires engineering majors, has no other option but to invest in education and training of new recruits before putting them to work, he said. The problem is not confined to technology sectors. Korean companies spend an average of 62 million won and 20.3 months on training graduates after hiring them, according to a study conducted by Korea Employers Federation. Experts attribute this problem to the falling quality of university education. University students in Korea pay some of the highest tuition fees but receive one of the poorest education services (compared to other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), Lee Young, a professor at Hanyang Univeristy, said. The nations average cost of university tuition is $8,519 at private institutions which account for 80 percent of all colleges and $4,717 at public universities, according to OECD figures adjusted for purchasing-power parity. Only schools in the United States and Denmark charge higher fees.

Number of students per teacher (Tertiary Education)

A key measure used to evaluate education quality is the student-faculty ratio. The OECD average is 16.2 students per full-time teaching staff, according to its report Education at a Glance 2010. No Korean data is offered in the report, but local statistics put the number for local universities at 24.9. In another indication of the poor educational service, the average number of library books per student at top 20 universities in Korea stands at 70, fewer than the 71 which is the smallest figure among 113 American universities surveyed by the Korea Education and Research Information Service. In the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2011, Korea came in 39th out of 59 countries in terms of the extent to which university education meets the needs of a competitive economy, one of the criteria for measuring the quality of higher education. It scored 5 out of a possible 10. However, the nations overall competitiveness of education was marked 29th in the survey, greatly boosted by having the second-highest rate of tertiary education completion. In the world university rankings by the Times Higher Education magazine last year, four Korean universities made it into the top 200: POSTECH (28th), KAIST (joint 79th), Seoul National University (joint 109th) and Yonsei University (joint 190th). Before 2005, no Korean university was in the top 100. Lees predicament is likely to be shared by a growing number of fellow engineering graduates. Samsung Economic Research Institute, a Seoul-based think tank, projected that Korea will have an over-supply of 30,000 holders of Bachelors degrees or higher in the IT field between 2010 and 2014. Nevertheless, 46,000 IT jobs will remain untaken, because of a shortage of the right skills, it said. A lot of problems in the nations job market for the youth may be solved by tackling the mismatch between the skills of the unemployed and the jobs available, said Minister of Knowledge Economy Choi Joong-kyung. His ministry is working on a set of measures aimed at raising the bar for IT education at universities. One of the steps calls for engineering majors to earn more than 60 percent of the credits required for graduation in their major. Currently, the required proportion of credits is around 50 percent, the ministry said.

YES/NO
Write Y if the sentences is correct and N if not.
1. 2. There is no job openings in the information technology industry. ____ Korean companies spend an average of 62 million won and 20.3 months on training graduates after hiring them, according to a study conducted by Korea Employers Federation.____ 3. Only schools in the United States and Denmark charge higher fees. ______ 4. They can t evaluate the education quality. _____ 5. There s a lot of unemployed graduates because of laziness.______ 6. Korea has 24.9:1 student to teacher ratio._____ 7. There is a mismatch between the skills of job applicants and the skills the company needs._____ 8. Most graduates are having difficulty in getting a job. 9. Universities in Korea are now closing.______ 10. The tuition fee in Korea in Tertiary Education is the most expensive. ____

Choose the letter from the word that matches the following definitions.

Definition
       ____ c p ble, tr i e , experie ce , ____ scie tific, speci lize , es teric, ____ restricte , limite , ____ scribe, pply, cre it, ____ sig , m rk, evi e ce, ____ me sure, stretc , qu tity, ____ st te, situ ti , sp t

Words a. b. c. d. e. f. g. Predicament Indication Confined Attributes Extent Technical Qualified

What are your plans after College?

(Write as many as possible)

LETS TALK !
What is your dream job and company? What if a small company hires you, are you going to continue? or you will reject it and pursue your dream company? Why or why not? How can education prepare us in landing a job? How important is education for you? The higher the tuition fee, the better education system. Do you believe in this thinking? Why or why not? Do we also need to educate the teachers? Why or Why not? If you will be the head of education department in Korea, what are you going to do to improve the education in Korea?