Nearly 75,000 job aspirants take KLT

Kathmandu, June 10

Altogether, 74,866 job aspirants appeared for the Korean Language Test (KLT) conducted by the Employment Permit System (EPS) of South Korea.

The EPS Korea Section, under the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), had conducted the KLT to fulfil labour demand for 2019 from South Korea, in the Capital and Pokhara on Saturday and today.

A total of 82,264 job seekers had submitted the KLT online application at EPS Korea Section in April.

As per Sovakar Bhandari, spokesperson for EPS Korea Section, 7,398 applicants did not attend the test. Meanwhile, 247 fake candidates who had appeared for the test on behalf of those who had submitted the online applications were arrested by the police.

The South Korean government will be providing employment opportunities to 7,100 Nepali workers in 2019, of whom 4,800 will be employed in production sector and remaining workers in the agriculture sector. The labour demand from South Korea stood at 10,200 in 2018 and 3,100 in 2017.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government, which has been taking Nepali workers on the basis of their KLT results, has mentioned that the job aspirants should from now on also possess required work skills. This means that along with clearing the KLT, job aspirants should also have sound skills and work ability to get a chance to work in South Korea.

Of the total applicants for KLT this year, 39,640 (30,179 males and 9,461 females) had applied for jobs in agriculture sector and 42,624 (39,208 males and 3,416 females) had applied for jobs in production sector.

This is the ninth series of the KLT and those selected through the KLT will be eligible to apply for jobs in South Korea. The validity of KLT will be for two years, which means that those who pass KLT cannot apply for jobs in South Korea after two years.

The South Korean government has set basic monthly salary of 1,236,000 won (around $1,075) for Nepali workers.

Over 50,000 Nepali workers have received opportunities to work in South Korea under the EPS so far and thousands of them have already returned to Nepal after completing their 58-month job placement in the country, according to EPS Korea Section.