More Students Studying at Vocational College
Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.
What have you heard about the youth unemployment situation in Korea?
Have you heard about President Obama’s ideas about Korea education? Do you agree? Why or why not?
President Obama holds the Korean education system up as a model for America. But it seems that not all Koreans would agree with the idea that more students need to go onto further education at university level.
According to South Korea's previous president Lee Myung Park, academic success is creating its own "social problem" - a youth unemployment rate of 6.7% in October is more than twice the national average. And this happens even as parts of the labor market are hungry for workers.
More and more university graduates in South Korea are finding it hard to get jobs. About 80% of high school students in South Korea go onto to higher education, but the job market is simply not providing enough white collar jobs for them. The solution it seems is vocational school training – a system that has worked for countries like Switzerland where high school graduates go onto to learn practical skills such as watchmaking.
Take for example Koo Woonmo, a 17 year old, who is doing things differently. He has already decided he wants to become a chef. However, his grandmother would not agree. She is not happy that he wants to do a job she thinks of as blue collar. She remembers a time when going to university was just a dream. She wants her grandchildren to graduate from university, as she believes that is the road to success.
In any case, Koo Woonmo hopes to cook up a solution to his career dilemmas
So rather than spend his school years cramming for the university entrance exam, he is learning practical skills at a specialist food cooking high school. And maybe he is taking the right choice as most graduates in vocational schools in Korea are finding jobs quickly while their friends at universities are not.
Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning.
The answers are below the table.
|
Hold up |
A |
1 |
Employment working in an office type position |
|
white collar jobs |
B |
2 |
How to or the way to reach our goals/dreams |
|
doing things differently |
C |
3 |
An occurrence, an example |
|
blue collar |
D |
4 |
To set or show as an example |
|
the road to success |
E |
5 |
A situation where it is hard to decide between 2 or more results |
|
In any case |
F |
6 |
To invent or create an answer to a problem |
|
cook up a solution |
G |
7 |
Someone who works in employment that is usually not skilled or involves using their hands |
|
dilemma |
H |
8 |
Not following most other people, individual style or direction |
A=4, B=1, C=8, D=7, E=2, F=3, G=6, H=5
Some example sentences using the new words to help you to better understand their meaning.
1.
1. Korea is held up as an example of how a country can become successful through hard work.
2. As an economy becomes more advanced then we can see more white collar jobs available.
3. Innovative companies try to find ways to do things differently and not just follow every other company’s ideas.
4. In the USA blue collar jobs such as a car mechanic can pay high wages these days.
5. The road to being successful in learning English is to practice every day.
6. The final due date for applying for the university has passed, in any case I didn’t have a high enough score to get into the program I wanted.
7. Not enough tickets were sold, so we cooked up a solution by offering a couple’s discount, tow for the price of one.
8. In America, there is a dilemma, should a student go to university and get a lot debt, or get a job, but not be happy in the job.
Some discussion questions using the new words to help you better understand the word meaning and how to use them correctly. Try to use the words in your answer.
1. How do you feel about President Obama holding up Korea’s education system as a model for America?
2. In the future, what white collar jobs will be more or less available?
3. If you were a student now, how would you do things differently to get a job?
4. Why have blue collar jobs not been popular in Korea? Do you agree that more and more students are choosing these jobs?
5. Do you agree that the only road to success is to study at university? Why or why not?
6. If you had trouble getting a job after graduating from university, would you take a blue collar job such as watchmaking or being a chef in any case? Why or why not?
7. What solutions is the government of Korea cooking up to solve the unemployment problem?
8. What do you think are the biggest dilemmas for university students in Korea these days?
ECK Education
