Those who wish to apply for work have to pass two tests.
This year, the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor’s Human Resources Development Service has applied new requirements to select experienced laborers who meet both professional and physical criteria.
Instead of taking only one test in Korean language proficiency (EPS-TOPIK) like in previous years, laborers have to take one more to test their professional skills and competency.
The computer-based language proficiency test for Vietnamese workers will be held for those in the manufacturing and construction industries from July 2-31 and the fishery sector from September 23 to October 11.
The workers will sit a professional skill and competency test in September for those in manufacturing and construction, and in November for fishery sector candidates.
The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs will recruit 2,600 fishery laborers; 1,000 manufacturing laborers and 300 construction laborers.
The Center for Overseas Labor will receive test applications from May 15-17. The exam fee is USD 24 per person.
The center will announce application venues later. The test results will be published on the center’s website at www.colab.gov.vn; EPS website www.eps.go.kr or EPS-TOPIK website www.eps.hrdkorea.or.kr/epstopic
Laborers qualified for the tests are those who have not worked in the RoK before and those who worked in the RoK under EPS program and returned home after the contracts had expired.
Those who illegally stayed in the RoK after the contracts had ended and voluntarily returned home between April and December 2016; July and October, 2017, and October 2018 and March 2019 are allowed to take the tests this year.
The RoK has blocked laborers from some Vietnamese provinces and cities to apply for EPS because the laborers from these localities overstayed and lived illegally in the RoK after the contracts had expired.
The EPS program is implemented to realize the Memorandum of Understanding on supplying and receiving Vietnamese workers to the RoK between the two governments.
Nearly 50,000 Vietnamese workers are working in the RoK, with about 16,000 of them having stayed after their contracts expired.
Source: VNA