On February 1, Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan – Director of the Nghệ An Employment Service Center – revealed that from the 26th to the 30th of January, the center received 6,500 applications to take the Korean language test for work in South Korea under the EPS program (employment permit system for foreign workers), almost double the number of candidates compared to last year which was 3,700.
“70% of the staff at the center have been mobilized to meet the surge of registrations from workers. There were days when employees had to work almost 24 hours to process all the registrations,” Mr. Tuan said.
The number of registrations for the Korean language test in Nghệ An at the beginning of 2024 has surged.
To reduce the workload and provide the best possible conditions for workers, the Nghệ An Employment Service Center has organized a registration schedule for different groups of workers from different localities, with an average of 3-5 districts and cities per day
Although the registration time was announced as 7:30-11:30 and 13:30-17:30 every day, the registration area at the center was constantly overloaded. Many workers arrived as early as 4 am, and the number of people coming to register increased gradually, leading to prolonged overload until late at night.
The Nghệ An Employment Service Center is constantly overcrowded.
Mr. Nguyen Van Cong (34 years old, residing in Quỳnh Lưu district, Nghệ An) said that due to the overwhelming crowd, although he arrived at 5 am, he had to wait until the end of the afternoon to complete the registration process. “I want to work in South Korea because the income there is higher than in other countries. We have been supported and guided by the staff at the center, but due to the large number of people, I had to wait until late in the afternoon to complete the registration,” Mr. Cong shared.
In recent times, the labor market in Japan, Taiwan, etc. has seen many fluctuations. Therefore, workers who want to work abroad have shifted their focus and registered to take the Korean language test.
Workers wait until late at night to register for the Korean language test, first session.
In addition, at the end of 2023, three localities in Nghệ An including Cua Lo town, Nghi Loc district, and Hung Nguyen district were removed from the list of suspended recruitment by South Korea. This is the reason behind the sudden increase in the number of workers in Nghệ An registering for the Korean language test in the past 5 years.
In the first session of 2024, South Korea will recruit 15,300 workers in four industries. Specifically, there are 11,200 spots for the manufacturing industry, nearly 900 spots for agriculture, 200 spots for construction, and over 3,000 spots in the fishing industry.
