The Ministry of Employment and Labor is set to implement two fresh policies to promote active employment of both the elderly and the youth in 2015 via close coordination with the Finance Ministry and the Education Ministry.

The two policies are the introduction of apprentice schools for young job seekers and the full-fledged expansion of the salary peak system for senior employees.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor in December confirmed its plan to provide young job seekers with more opportunities by benchmarking the Switzerland-based apprenticeship system, which features classes one or two days per week and vocational training for three or four days at enterprises.

As a pilot operation, the government will launch nine vocational schools in 2015 and expand the apprenticeship schemes linking 41 industrial complexes nationwide in 2016.

“Policymakers are striving to tackle the country’s high youth unemployment rate. Job seekers aged 16-24 are likely to benefit from the vocational schools, which offer both study via classes and training at enterprises,” said an official.

He predicted that a large portion of students at vocational schools would be hired by the enterprises that host them during training.

The ministry is aiming to help 500,000 young job seekers secure work between 2015 and 2017.

South Korea is seeking to pull up the youth employment rate to the average figure held by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

While the OECD average hovers at 50 percent, Korea posted a 39.5 percent youth employment rate as of March 2014.

Despite improvements in the nation’s overall employment in recent years, the youth employment rate has fallen.

The overall employment rate climbed from 61.5 percent in 2000 to 64.5 percent in 2013. However, the employment rate of people aged 15 to 29 shrank from 43.4 percent to 39.5 percent over the same period, with that of people aged 20 to 24 plunging 10 percentage points to 42 percent.

Meanwhile, the government has arranged a labor policy for the baby boomer generation, which refers to people born between 1955 and 1963 in Korea.

While the number of baby boomers is estimated at 7.1 million, or 14.6 percent of the population, they will likely have greater opportunity for more work or reemployment.

From 2015, the government will increase its funding to companies that adopt the wage peak system ― from the current 8.4 million won ($7,600) in cash support to 10.8 million won per year per worker over age 50 if the company hires the worker until age 60.

The wage peak system will extend the retirement age to 60 from the current age range of 53 to 58. The paycheck for elderly workers will be reduced by about 10 percent over their last several years at work.

The Employment Ministry has set the goal of voluntary participation from the business sector in 2015, a year before the law becomes effective.

From 2016, the law passed in April 2013 will make it mandatory for the public sector and big businesses with 300 or more employees to extend the retirement age to 60 or older and others, including small businesses, from 2017.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)