The government has been working on the 'Public institution youth internship' program since 2008 in order to provide young men with job opportunities to enhance their abilities. The number of youth interns in public institutions has increased tremendously from 2,845 persons in the first year to 13,417 in 2011. Since last year, the government has taken action to improve the efficiency of the internship program. For example, the government recommends that 20 percent of new employees are allocated to interns, or reflect the result of internship in 'business performance evaluation system'. It scored 1 point at the 'government-recommended policy' which is one of the indicators in the leadership/responsible management category. In addition to the context of 'Open Society Employment Campaign' announced on September in 2011, public institutions have been expanding high school graduates internship in numbers and paths to full-time employment. As a result, more than 13,000 youth interns have been employed in public institutions since 2011 which was 34 percent higher than estimated.
It seems that the public institution youth internship is operating well in quantitative performance, but as seen in figure 1, more than half of interns failed to get into regular positions. Furthermore, the proportion of the high school graduates in total interns was only around 5 percent.
[Figure1_The 2011 types of resignation of interns in public institution]
In order to design a better internship program in 2012, The Ministry of Strategy and Finance will examine and analyze the performance of each public institution's internship system such as the number of employment, transition to permanent position ratio and the issues of high school graduates. According to internship schemes of 285 public institutions, around 12,000 interns are going to be employed during 2012 and the 20 percent of them will be allocated to high school graduates. Public institutions and State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are planning to hire 4,830 interns. Quasi-Governmental institutions and Non-Classified public institutions are going to employ 3,729 and 3,523 interns respectively. The term of internship contract varies from 5 to 12 months and a salary structure can be flexible between 800,000 and 1,100,000 won a month (based on 30 ~ 40 working hours a month). This is a clear and detailed task, but not a responsible task for security reasons, is given during the internship program. A compulsory on-board training will be introduced to help new interns adjust to the jobs, and several educational programs will also be provided to improve interns' working abilities.
In hiring permanent employees, public institutions will give stronger preference to applicants with experience in youth internship programs. For example, 20 percent of new employees are allocated to those who have internship experiences. Some special treatment such as additional points or document screening exemption can also be provided to excellent interns.
In my opinion, however, the quality of employment matters more than the quantity in improving 'Public institution youth internship' program. There is a first need that public institutions have an exceptional autonomy in personnel management proportional to the number of interns translating into a full-time position. Being enrolled to capacity, public institutions cannot afford to increase a regular position unless they reduce the current workers. It would be also good idea that the government gives more weight on the qualitative result, such as the ratio of transition to a regular position including other companies, in 'business performance evaluation system'. A desirable internship system has to not only bring men of talent to a company but also bring talent to an intern. That is the true meaning of internship.
