Kathmandu, June 8

The two-day Korean Language Test (KLT) conducted by the Employment Permit System (EPS) in South Korea for Nepali job aspirants will begin from Saturday.

The EPS Korea Section at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) informed that necessary groundwork to hold the KLT exam in a fair manner simultaneously in Kathmandu and Pokhara has been completed.

Altogether, 82,264 job aspirants are expected to appear for the Korean language proficiency exam this year. They had submitted the KLT online application at EPS Korea Section in April.

Uddhav Prasad Rijal, information officer at DoFE, said that 28 examination centres (16 in Kathmandu, eight in Lalitpur and four in Pokhara) have been fixed for the KLT examination.

On both days, the one-hour KLT examination will be taken in two shifts — 10:00am to 11:00am and 2:00pm to 3:00pm.

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.

The South Korean government will be providing employment opportunities to 7,100 Nepali workers in 2019, of whom 4,800 will be employed in the production sector and the remaining workers in the agriculture sector.

The labour demand from South Korea stood at 10,200 in 2018 and 3,100 in 2017.

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