As Education Level Rises, More Young People Over Qualified for Jobs

By Kim Yeon-ji, Arirang News. 24-year-old Im Seul-mi, a senior in college, has one year left before graduation. While doing an internship for credit, she is busy gathering information about graduate programs in international development. She says a Master's degree is a must to get into her field of choice.
"A Master's program in development will give me a hands on experience in the field, giving me an upper hand when applying for an overseas job. I didn't think having a higher degree is a must, but many of my friends are thinking about grad school. Now, I feel somewhat obligated to go to grad school."
"With many young people like Seul-mi pursuing a higher education, college has become common place in Korea, and it's happened at a rapid rate. Today, 40-percent of the entire population, has either graduated from college or had some education at the college level or above. That's much higher than the OECD average of 30-percent in 2009."
It's a significant change from the 1970s, when college education was not common at all. Back then, the ratio of adults with a college education was not quite one in every 10 people, and 30 percent of the adult population was without an elementary school education. Experts say the rapid increase in the number of people with a college education in the past 40 years has come along with Korea's rapid industrialization. However, there simply aren't enough jobs for all of the highly over-educated students.
"Seventy percent of high school graduates are going on to college in Korea. And this is not normal for any given society. No matter how advanced and developed, a nation cannot provide such a high number of elite jobs. This means that many Koreans, with a college or higher education, are being forced to take jobs under their qualifications, which creates a huge cost at the individual and national level."
What's more, despite the gloomy statistics, the frenzy for education among Korean parents shows no signs of abating.
New data shows that Korean parents spent nearly 19 billion U.S. dollars on private education last year alone.