Why must young people be finished products?

Park So-young
The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo. 

A Japanese guest visited my home last weekend. She is a close friend of my daughter and about the same age. Five years ago, after graduating from Waseda University’s School of Commerce, she was hired for a specialized aviation job, despite not having studied the field at university. She learned about the career at a job fair near the end of her sophomore student year, then received systematic education and training after joining the company. Two and a half years later, she earned the required qualification. Today, she works as a professional, communicating with captains in flight. Hearing her story made me think of young Koreans her age.

Competition for jobs is fierce in Japan, too, and more companies prefer experienced workers. Yet the tradition of hiring new graduates and developing them remains strong. Airlines’ in-house training programs, which recruit young people without pilot licenses and train them as pilots, are a prime example. This year, 98 percent of Japanese university graduates found jobs.

Japan is not necessarily the answer. Still, its first gateway into employment remains open even to young people without specialized knowledge or skills, allowing companies to turn them into professionals through education and training.

In Korea, competition for employment begins long before graduation. After surviving fierce competition over school grades and the college entrance exam, students accumulate grades, certificates, English scores, internships, extracurricular activities and job experience. Those who fail to find work may even postpone graduation to prepare again. They are expected to acquire the abilities companies want while still students.

It is also difficult to blame companies for preferring experienced workers. For businesses under pressure to deliver results quickly, someone ready to work immediately is attractive. Using skilled employees to raise productivity has helped Korean companies compete globally. The problem arises when everyone wants experienced workers. Where are experienced workers supposed to come from?

The question has become more urgent in the age of artificial intelligence. According to a Bank of Korea analysis, youth employment fell by 285,000 jobs over the past four years, with 94 percent of the decline occurring in industries highly exposed to new technologies. Jobs for workers in their 50s increased in those same industries. Technology is replacing tasks performed by beginners while enhancing the capabilities of experienced workers, a phenomenon known as seniority-biased technological change.

That may be rational for individual companies. But there is a paradox. Today’s skilled worker was yesterday’s inexperienced recruit. Companies once hired beginners, placed them beside senior colleagues and allowed them to learn through mistakes. During their first few years, companies often taught them more than they received in return. Entry-level work was both productive labor and a training ground for expertise.

Now that first rung is becoming unstable. The answer cannot simply be to tell young people to collect more certificates, internships and job experience. We need a solution when rational decisions by individual companies produce irrational outcomes for society.

That is why the government’s plan to introduce semester-long university internships in next year’s budget deserves attention. Students would work as interns for a semester, earn academic credit and gain experience. What matters is ensuring that the program does not become just another credential. It should not require young people to build experience before getting work. It should let them gain experience by working.

A society’s competitiveness depends not only on how effectively it uses people who are already skilled but also on how well it develops those who are not. Wanting experienced workers is rational for companies. But taking in inexperienced recruits and developing them into talent is also a corporate role and an investment in the future.

Experienced workers do not appear fully formed. They become experienced because someone gave them a first opportunity and taught them how to work. A society that does not train beginners today cannot have skilled workers tomorrow. Young people do not need a taller ladder. They need a first rung they can climb even while they are still learning.