Office Workers' 'Non-Face-to-Face Self-Development' Craze Amid Employment Insecurity

Popular Educational Content Supporting Skill Enhancement and Career Development

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] As employment insecurity deepens due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the self-development market for enhancing work capabilities and preparing for a second career is rapidly growing.

According to industry sources on the 22nd, more office workers are dedicating themselves to self-development after work to build a stable career at their current job or to find a better second job.

According to a survey conducted by the job platform Saramin in May targeting 1,266 office workers, 65% of respondents said they engage in self-development while employed. The reasons were primarily an increased need for self-development due to employment insecurity (56%, multiple responses allowed), and preparing for retirement or multiple jobs (30.2%). Other answers included having more time to invest in self-development due to staying at home (33%) and having funds to invest in self-development due to reduced social gatherings (17.7%).

In response to the changed employment environment, adult education content that helps improve job skills and career development for office workers has recently gained attention. With the ability to take classes online and via mobile devices, self-development can be practiced without time and space constraints. Various educational platforms have emerged, offering everything from basic job-related training to specialized expertise that connects to employment, providing an environment conducive to career development.

Hunet: A Reliable Lifelong Learning Partner Supporting Promotion Training to High-Spec Senior Employment Creation

Companies providing practical educational programs for adults?from vocational training and promotion education for office workers to employment creation for retired seniors?are gaining attention. Lifelong education specialist Hunet was selected as the ‘Best Vocational Training Institution of 2021’ by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education & Training, receiving praise for developing training models based on edutech that raised the level of vocational education in the corporate education sector.

Hunet offers a variety of employee training curricula, including foreign languages, certifications, promotion education for office workers, team leader leadership schools, and manager competency build-up schools, helping strengthen employees’ work capabilities. Additionally, through Hunet Lifelong Education Center, an officially accredited credit bank institution by the Ministry of Education, online degree acquisition is also possible.

Moreover, Hunet’s talent matching platform Talent Bank connects highly experienced experts nearing retirement with job opportunities, while helping companies reduce fixed costs from hiring, address recruitment promotion and verification issues, and resolve shortages of high-level personnel, receiving strong positive responses.

Class101 Career: Offering Diverse Learning for Job Skill Improvement from Foreign Language Translation to Design

Class101, which offers online classes in various fields such as hobbies, finance, and kids’ classes, operates ‘Class101 Career,’ a program composed of diverse educational content designed to assist office workers and prospective job seekers in their work. Class101 Career, consisting of lectures for job skill improvement such as design, development, languages, job training, and writing, has seen the number of students increase about fourfold as of September this year compared to the same period last year, reflecting the growing number of studying office workers.

Currently, the fields with high enrollment rates in Career classes are language, foreign languages, and design. Popular classes include △“Complete Business English from TOEIC to Conversation in 220 Sentences” △“Crossing Reason and Emotion: Eye-Catching Brand Design” △“You Can Do It Too! Everything About Motion Graphics Taught by Veteran Practitioners.” Additionally, with rising demand in development roles, Class101’s data/development classes are also attracting many students, the company explained.

A Class101 representative said, “We plan to expand data and development classes and introduce various creative classes in areas such as design, publishing, music, film, and voice acting. In the language field, we will offer diverse translation classes including English, Japanese publishing translation, and Chinese essay translation.”

Code States: Reducing Initial Learning Costs with Income Share Agreement (ISA) Model for ‘IT Career Transition’

Bootcamp programs that support rapid improvement of practical skills through systematic learning processes beyond just job skill enhancement are also gaining popularity. Code States, a leading domestic IT talent development startup, not only provides IT education but also connects graduates to employment at over 230 prominent companies. Furthermore, it introduced the ‘We-Win’ program, the first in Korea to apply the Income Share Agreement (ISA) model, where students pay a portion of their income as tuition only after securing a job with a certain salary, easing the initial financial burden for those preparing for career transitions.

Code States operates bootcamps in various fields such as software engineering, product management, growth marketing, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain. These programs are designed with a systematic curriculum including foundational lectures, team projects, quizzes, and peer learning-based pair programming to quickly build practical skills. Career consulting services such as resume writing, mock interviews, and salary negotiation planning are also provided to participants. Education is conducted entirely online, with both full-time and part-time courses available, the latter allowing learners to balance work and career transition efforts, receiving strong support from prospective IT job seekers.

With increasing demand for IT roles including developers, Code States’ cumulative student enrollment grew more than fivefold in 2020 compared to the previous year, and income share payments surged over 30 times within a year, doubling revenue. Graduates from Code States are known to work at companies such as Naver, Kakao, and Danggeun Market, with a cumulative employment rate of 90% among last year’s graduates.