Recently the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has grown important in various fields, including education and training, human resources development, and social welfare. Despite several legal improvements and increased social concern, support from the government has been weak and only a few systematical studies about the actual condition of NGO-provided education and training are available. NGOs have provided various social services and thus there is a need to study the actual conditions of NGSs in human resources development for both their employees and members, which can set the groundwork for the realization of a comprehensive learning society and the establishment of social learning network. It is essential for our society to participate in NGO's education training programs to achieve a civic society of network learning where citizens play a key role in criticizing freely over public issues and actively taking part in society.
In this regard, this study aims to analyze the actual conditions of NGO's education and training programs and make suggestions to help improve the performance of NGO's programs.
In particular, the first aim of this study is to analyze the actual conditions of NGO's human resources development programs intended for the general public and NGO workers who serve human resources development programs. And the second aim of this study is to make suggestions would increase the probability of realizing a comprehensive learning society. This report surveyed general civic groups providing human resources development programs, except employer and labor groups.
This report sampled 290 groups offering human resources development programs using the「Directory of Korean NGOs 2003」which contains about 10,000 groups. Of the groups selected, as many as 116 groups belonged to the civil society sector and 71 groups were in the social service sector. The majority number of NGOs offering human resources development programs were concentrated in the Seoul, Kyunggi and Jeollabukdo areas and in that order. Of those, 140 groups offered such programs.
This report surveyed 290 civic groups from the「Directory of Korean NGOs 2003」and 355 affiliated groups of Solidarity network, during from July to August in 2004. The total number of groups surveyed is 77 groups, including 36(46.8%) groups belonging to the civil society sector, 22(28.6%) groups in the social service field, 10(13.0%) groups in the field of labor, farming and fishery, 5(6.5%) groups in the education and academic field, 2(2.6%) environmental protection groups, and 1(1.3%) group for each culture and media, and religion sectors. According to the statistics in this report, agricultural training programs offered to the public accounted for 29.3%, volunteer training programs accounted for 13.8%, sex education for the youth accounted for 10.0%, children's education programs stood at 5.5%, women education programs constituted 5.3%, and counsellor training programs accounted for 2.8%. The programs funded by the central and local governments included agricultural training(36.8%), volunteer training(36.8%), sex education for young people(11.8%), women education(4.2%), professional career training(3.5%), and leadership education(3.5%).
Most groups surveyed pointed out that insufficient funding is the most serious problem in providing programs. And the majority of groups survey customer satisfaction after the completion of programs and more than 60 percent of the groups surveyed have full-time employers in charge of education. It is expected that more than 73 percent of groups will have human resources education programs.
Under the peculiar political circumstances, Korean NGOs have not fully tried to design programs addressing unemployment issues and economic activities. There are some major issues being confronted and the most important one to resolve is to secure basic components, including humanware, software and hardware, and to establish the networks between institutions.
In terms of humanware, each civil group needs to secure training experts and active learners. As for software, each group must have specialized programs and management. As for hardware, each group should be equipped with educational facilities and have sufficient funds. Moreover there must be a close network system connecting different groups.
In conclusion, for successful management of the training programs provided by NGOs, there must be an institutional system, such as a legislative framework, which does not violate the independency and autonomy of NGOs. Besides, each NGO must secure program managers who can train learners by using materials and human resources, and should create a closely-working network system.