<Resources> The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) underwent organizational restructuring in May 2009. The Career-Interrupted Women's Economic Promotion
Division was added to oversee policies and programs promoting career-interrupted women's employment. In February 2010, the five-member division added four additional staff positions.
For its part, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has assigned Women's Employment Policy Division staff members to be exclusively responsible for promoting and supporting career-interrupted women's workforce participation, and established positions responsible for related policy works and projects in each of the 80 Employment Centers across the country.
A work division in each city and provincial government has been entrusted with the function of supporting career-interrupted women’s reentrance to the labor market, and one or more staff employees are assigned to overseeing the planning and implementation of
related projects.
Career planners and employment counselors are assigned to each Saeil Center to help career-interrupted women reenter the labor force. As of today, the 110 Saeil Centers nationwide are staffed with 690 career planners and 200 employment counselors.
Budget responsibilities for the initiative are shared among MOGEF, MOEL and local governments. In 2012, MOGEF takes the largest budget share of 29 billion KRW
(equivalent to 26.7 million USD), MOEL contributes 7.4 billion KRW (equiv. to 6.8 million USD) and local governments provide 12.2 billion KRW (equiv. to 11.2 million USD).
In 2012, each center received an average of 349.9 million KRW (equiv. to 322,000 USD) from MOGEF alone, totaling 29 billion KRW (equivalent to 26.7 million USD).
On average, a Saeil Center finances 43 Interns, four vocational training curricula, personnel expenses for five career planners, and post-employment support programs (40 million KRW, or equiv. to 36,832 USD).
Technical Resources The central support agency provides consulting services to Saeil Centers and training modules to their employees. The support center also assesses the project capacity of each
center by reviewing its operation and services provided.
<Key Benefits>
Despite its short history, Saeil Centers have taken firm root as the central employment support organization for women by successfully matching job-seeking women with opportunities fitting for their aptitudes and expectations. Career-interrupted women no longer find themselves in the blind spot of the employment support system that focused mainly on men and temporary unemployment.
Between 2009 and 2011, a total of 287,000 women became employed through Saeil Centers. Initiative-linked employment has been increasing every year, from 67,519 in 2009, and 101,980 in 2010, and 117,370 in 2011. The employment rate (number of employees/number of registered job seekers * 100%) is also on the rise, from 51.8% in 2009 to 62.1% in 2010, and 62.8% in 2011. This figure is especially promising when compared the national female employment rate (the proportion of economically active members in
the working-age female population) of 47.4% in 2009 and 47.8% in 2010.
From 2009 to 2011, 13,517 women participated in Saeil Internships working at various businesses. 11,413 (87% of participants) completed the internship, and 10,771 of them secured a job afterwards, marking an impressive post-internship employment rate of 93.2%.
Vocational Programs: from 2009 to 2011, a total of 20,718 women received vocational training, with 18,213 of them completing the curriculum (87.9%). The 59.1% (10,771 women) who completed the vocational program found employment afterwards.
Besides these impressive figures, support programs have been qualitatively successful as well. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF), 93.3% of respondents expressed satisfaction with the one-stop employment support services available at Saeil Centers.
|