A Competency –based Training Program Adopted by the Korean Civil Service in Support of a Personnel Management Reform Strategy

Following the South Korean foreign exchange crisis of 1997, there was a growing consensus that encouraged government reforms in promoting a more competitive workforce, based on the concept of the New Public Management system. The competency management system in the Korean national government was initiated in this circumstance. It was designed to support the processes within workforce planning, that included: selection; promotion; education and training; and with career progression. In its adoption in 2006, the Korean Central Officials Training Institute used this competency management program for the training and further development of its own workforce. In this process, the MOPAS and the COTI conducted as roles of the AC and the DC respectively for the competency-based training programs. Korea’s future plan is to broaden HRM areas encompassed by competency management and to increase the number of civil servants involved in competency management. Until now, the Korean government evaluated competency management as better than the other methods of personnel management in terms of reliability, validity, and compliance. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning the AC and DC as a new practice concerning competency management in the Korean experience. The simulations and facilitators are the most essential factors for the Development Center. The numbers of these have not been enough since the COTI adopted the competency-based training programs. Therefore, how the COTI manages to develop more suitable simulations and to train more professional facilitators must be another challenge for the future development on this subject