[2024 Budget] 1.9 Trillion Won for Advanced Talent Development... 10 More Semiconductor Specialized Universities to Be Established

The government will invest 1.874 trillion won to foster advanced talent. It plans to increase the number of semiconductor-specialized universities and establish new universities specializing in secondary batteries. Additionally, 500 billion won and 200 billion won will be allocated for labor market rationalization and attracting overseas manpower, respectively.

According to the '2024 Budget Plan' announced by the government on the 29th, the budget for cultivating advanced talent increased by 277.8 billion won (17.4%) from 1.5962 trillion won this year. Approximately 100 billion won has been allocated for semiconductor talent development. The current eight semiconductor-specialized universities will be expanded by opening 10 more, and 17 additional boot camps, which serve as training centers, will be established.

About 200 billion won has also been allocated for early employment-type graduate school contract departments and the establishment of secondary battery-specialized universities. Five new fields, including advanced new materials, cloud, and blockchain, will be added to the 13 fields in the Innovative Convergence University. Furthermore, a curriculum will be created for 3,000 students across 15 schools related to secondary batteries (4 schools), next-generation displays (4 schools), biohealth (4 schools), and aerospace (3 schools).

The labor market rationalization budget has significantly increased by 191 billion won (63.5%), from 300.4 billion won to 491.4 billion won. The main focus is on improving the dual structure and promoting labor flexibility. In particular, the budget is concentrated on job performance wage restructuring and win-win cooperation between primary and subcontractors, aiming to reduce the gap between large corporations and regular workers versus subcontractors and non-regular workers. Infrastructure investment budgets to reduce actual working hours and activate flexible work arrangements have also been included.

In addition, newly established budgets include wage system consulting (7.5 billion won), support for forming win-win solidarity (5 billion won), and work-life balance job incentives (10.8 billion won).

The budget for attracting overseas manpower to alleviate labor shortages increased from 103.4 billion won to 163.7 billion won. Considering the increase of 30,000 quotas for skilled foreign worker visas, the issuance of foreign registration cards will be expanded from 495,000 to 622,000. Job training for unskilled foreign workers (E-9) will support 4,000 people, and the work-study dual system for foreign students will support 1,000 people.

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