'Untact Yeolgongjok' Is on the Rise

Increase in Use of Non-Face-to-Face Education Platforms

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#. Office worker Kim Junho (alias) habitually turns on his PC after returning home from work. It is not to play online games or shop. The place he connects to is an educational platform where various handicrafts can be learned. Kim, who is learning non-face-to-face (untact) leather crafting here, has become deeply absorbed in the joy of carefully making a handmade wallet stitch by stitch.

#. Jeong Jihoon (alias) these days opens a book whenever he has a moment. This is to preview the content of the humanities lectures he listens to online at home after work. Although it feels strange to live surrounded by books, which he avoided during his school days, he newly realizes that discovering himself growing through the process of asking questions and sharing thoughts can be a source of enjoyment.

The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to the 'untact study tribe.' With the establishment of the 52-hour workweek and recent social distancing measures, spending increased personal time on self-development using non-face-to-face (untact) educational platforms is becoming a trend. The scope of study these people immerse themselves in ranges widely from hobbies to humanities and programming.

According to Backpacker, which operates the online handmade market 'Idus,' the video lecture service 'Online Geumson Class' has seen its transaction volume grow by more than 50% on average each month. Since launching this service, which allows learning handicrafts untact in December last year, the number of students has sharply increased in the first half of this year, directly affected by the COVID-19 situation. Online Geumson Class, a handmade lecture where Idus-affiliated artists participate directly, currently offers over 50 classes including cooking, leather, embroidery, silkscreen, glass crafts, calligraphy, and drawing. Backpacker plans to increase the number of handicraft classes to about 130 by the end of this year, fueled by the surge in enrollment.

Online lecture platform company Class101 is also experiencing rapid growth. According to Class101, comparing performance from April to May this year with the same period last year, the number of students increased 3.2 times and total sales rose 3.3 times. In response, Class101 recently launched the liberal arts content section 'Libre,' expanding its focus from hobby and job training to areas such as humanities, society, economy, science, and arts. A Class101 representative explained, "The Libre category will be filled with diverse and in-depth content sufficient to satisfy the broad knowledge desires of the 2030 millennial generation."

Startup Code States, which provides programming and systematic educational programs online that can be immediately applied in the field, announced that the number of new students in the first half of this year increased more than 7.5 times compared to the same period last year, reaching the largest scale ever. Code States currently offers courses in software engineering, product management, growth marketing, and data science, and plans to diversify its curriculum according to the segmentation of the IT software field in the future.

Companies have also begun supporting employees' self-development through online educational platforms. For example, Hana Financial TI, an IT specialist company of Hana Financial Group, is promoting the development and operation of cloud-based coding education content in collaboration with startup ELICE, which operates an online coding education platform. ELICE's programming education platform has also been used for large-scale digital competency enhancement training for employees of major domestic conglomerates such as SK Group and LG Group. An industry insider said, "With the 52-hour workweek increasing leisure time, office workers voluntarily engaging in self-development is becoming a trend, and combined with the increased demand for untact content due to COVID-19, market interest in untact education is growing."