KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

This research focuses on the issue of maintaining identities in the integrated employment-welfare delivery system and specific ways to make up for the functions and roles of the New Job Centers for Women. The research goals and questions are as follows: first, to examine whether the current model for the Korean-style Employment Welfare Plus Centers is appropriate from the position of the women’s employment support centers; second, to discuss the issue of identities and a new role model for the New Job Centers for Women that moved into the Employment Welfare Plus Centers by analyzing how the New Job Centers perform their unique functions and roles in the Plus Centers; third, to explore new customers and service identities of the New Job Centers by analyzing the way to optimize overlapping and linked services between the different centers that moved in the same centers; fourth, to analyze the issues of how the internal process works at the New Job Centers, such as if the internal process implemented by the New Job Centers works as well in the private enclosed spaces (PES) of the Employment Welfare Plus Centers and if not, what are the specific reasons; and fifth and last, to analyze the issue of governance by looking into the operation of the governance system of the Employment Welfare Plus Centers that comprises the central and local governments as well as private institutions, and to make suggestions for improvement through the analysis of the problems the New Job Centers are exposed to in that process.

Based on the research findings, we make the following suggestions for improvement.

- Improvement Suggestion 1: Re-examine ways to form a “geographical integration” to make a single brand for employment and welfare services

- Improvement Suggestion 2: Seek ways to incentivize the move-in of the New Job Centers

- Improvement Suggestion ３: Develop appropriate models for the move-in of the New Job Centers through various attempts

- Improvement Suggestion 4: Diversify the models for the move-in using the metropolitan New Job Centers for Women

- Improvement Suggestion 5: Develop phased application models for the suburb move-in models

- Improvement Suggestion ６: Clarify the assessment criteria and methods in the Employment Welfare Plus Centers

① Clearly measure and assess links according to the composition of different service portfolios by target

② Reflect performance in the assessment depending on the difficulty of getting a job

- Improvement Suggestion 7: Encourage agreements on distribution in the initial counseling

① Agree to the standards for securing experts and distributing users

② Prepare a manual for user distribution principles

③ Make it a duty to record counseling

④ Redesign the spaces in the Employment Welfare Plus Centers

- Improvement Suggestion 8: Improve the vulnerable governance system of the New Job Centers: designate responsible counterparts in the centers

- Improvement Suggestion 9: Call for improving the environment so that the New Job Centers can apply a package-type employment model in the Employment Welfare Plus Centers as well. The model includes counseling, vocational training, and job placement as a package and has strengths for women on a career break

- Improvement Suggestion 10: Analyze core customers of the New Job Centers and develop customized services: build a close case management system

- Improvement Suggestion 11: Differentiate customer discovery (core customers) and create jobs in the community: bolster outreach

- Improvement Suggestion 12: Strengthen the brand image of employment and welfare services through moving self-support centers in

- Improvement Suggestion 13: Seek ways to promote cooperation of service providers: conduct regular education and workshops

- Improvement Suggestion 14: Overcome the limitation of failure to link welfare with employment service