9 Out of 10 Young Jobseekers Rely on Private Education for Employment, Spending an Average of 3.6 Million Won per Year

Education Spring: "What Government Youth Policies Lack
Burdens of Job Preparation and Fair Hiring Practices"

A recent survey has found that more than 9 out of 10 young adults have received private education to secure employment, with annual spending on this preparation averaging 3.6 million won. It has been pointed out that young people are being pushed into a so-called “over-spec” competition and reliance on expensive private education for jobs, as companies often require significantly more information on actual job applications than what is listed in recruitment notices.

According to Education Spring, a civic group focused on education, a survey of 557 young adults conducted between June 30 and July 15 revealed that 93.7% had experience with private job-preparation education. The average monthly expenditure was 300,000 won, amounting to 3.6 million won per year.

Education Spring

By spending range, the largest proportion of respondents (25.9%) spent between 200,000 and 300,000 won per month on private job-preparation education, followed by 21.5% spending between 300,000 and 400,000 won, and 20.0% in the 100,000 to 200,000 won range.

The proportion of those spending more than 1 million won per month reached 3.2%.

Additionally, 63.6% of respondents reported experiencing financial difficulties due to these costs. Of the total expense, 65.0% was funded by the individuals themselves through part-time jobs and other sources, while 55.1% relied on financial support from their parents.

An official at Education Spring noted, “The cost of preparing for employment is no longer just a burden for young individuals, but has become a responsibility for entire households.”

Private job-preparation education expenditures were notably higher among those with lower educational attainment. Young adults with a high school diploma or less spent an average of 442,000 won per month—142,000 won more per month than those who graduated from four-year universities. Education Spring analyzed this as a structure in which youth facing less favorable employment prospects end up bearing even higher costs in an attempt to bridge the gap.

The growing demand for private job-preparation education was mainly attributed to excessive “spec requirements” set by companies.

According to Education Spring’s analysis of job postings and application forms from June to October last year, targeting 142 among the top 1,000 revenue-generating companies posting 2025 second-half recruitment ads on JobKorea, companies listed an average of 2.3 qualification requirements in their recruitment notices. However, the actual job application forms required an average of 12.7 items—nearly six times more. Among the companies surveyed, 84.5% required applicants to fill out 10 or more fields on their application forms.

Youth respondents also believed that this competition for additional credentials actually hindered them from building practical job skills. In the survey, 74.2% said, “I can’t cultivate the job skills I actually need because I’m busy preparing credentials and other ‘specs.’” Education Spring criticized companies for demanding information on job applications that is unrelated to actual job requirements, thus compelling jobseekers to prepare credentials they themselves are not sure are necessary.

Issues regarding educational background and alma mater were also raised in the hiring process. While recruitment notices often omit educational background as a condition, 93% of job application forms required applicants to state their alma mater. As a result, 82.8% of young jobseekers said they felt discrimination during the hiring process.

Education Spring pointed out that although the government has increased its budget for youth employment support, there is a lack of policy addressing private education costs and over-spec issues during the job-preparation process. While the government conducts annual surveys of private education expenses for elementary, middle, and high school students, there is no regular government-led survey focusing on private education expenses related to youth employment preparation.

Accordingly, the group proposed six major policy tasks to reduce the employment burden on young people, urging the government and National Assembly to take action. To the National Assembly, they requested passage of legislation prohibiting hiring discrimination based on alma mater (Educational Background Hiring Discrimination Prevention Act) and a law for the support of high school graduates seeking employment. The Ministry of Employment and Labor was asked to conduct regular surveys on youth private job-preparation education expenses and to investigate the demand for non-job-related information on job applications. The Ministry of Economy and Finance was urged to inspect compliance with public sector hiring targets for high school graduates and to strengthen management evaluation criteria. To the Public Procurement Service, they suggested deleting fields related to educational background from public bidding and contract participant forms if unrelated to the job role.

Education Spring

Meanwhile, Education Spring and the coalition for the movement supporting the Educational Background Hiring Discrimination Prevention Act plan to hold a press conference in front of the Hanwha headquarters on the 29th, calling on Hanwha Aerospace to abolish and improve its internal hiring guidelines. This follows allegations that Hanwha Aerospace has been operating internal guidelines favoring graduates from certain universities in its experienced recruitments.

They also plan to call for the prompt passage of the Educational Background Hiring Discrimination Prevention Act, which is currently pending in the National Assembly.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.