Labor Shortage in Shipbuilding Industry Filled from Abroad... Overseas Shipbuilding Workforce Center Operational

First Center Established in Indonesia
On-site Welding and Korean Language Training Conducted

On the 5th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced the opening of the 'Overseas Shipbuilding Workforce Center' in Serang, Indonesia, and the launch of a system to train excellent shipbuilding personnel through Korean language and technical education locally, and introduce them to domestic shipbuilding sites.

The Overseas Shipbuilding Workforce Center is a project that conducts Korean language education for communication and technical training tailored to the characteristics of domestic shipbuilding sites in the local area beforehand, and then deploys the workforce to domestic production sites. It has the advantage of being able to be immediately deployed to shipbuilding sites without the need for retraining in Korea, and can stably supply excellent personnel. It can also strengthen industrial cooperation with the local country.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy explained that after being proposed in the 'K-Shipbuilding Next Generation Initiative' in March, the Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Plant Association and the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower reached this outcome after about five months of consultations.

Specifically, the center will provide welding technology training required by Korean shipbuilders to 30-40 people in the first phase over three months, and conduct a certification course for classification society welding qualifications suitable for the shipbuilding industry. Along with this, Korean language education and the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) will be conducted, and a preliminary safety education program will be operated to prevent safety accidents. The Indonesian government will be responsible for recruiting trainees, conducting education, and providing facilities, while the Korea Shipbuilding Association will dispatch experts and support testing.

The government plans to strengthen the role of the center by expanding the number of trainees while supplementing improvements through the pilot project, and also promote expansion to other countries. In addition, through consultations with related ministries, institutional support measures such as linking with Official Development Assistance (ODA) and simplifying visa issuance procedures will be reviewed.

Meanwhile, the domestic shipbuilding industry currently has secured 39.12 million CGT (as of August 2), equivalent to 3 to 4 years of workload, but is facing difficulties in securing production personnel due to the outflow of workforce caused by the long-term recession.