A GROWING number of companies in South Korea no longer rely on TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test scores in looking for new employees, The Korea Times has reported.
The two tests were widely used by employers to measure English proficiency of job seekers. According to Chosun Ilbo, despite growing criticism, TOEIC had managed to retain its position as the leading means of evaluating English skills of jobseekers in South Korea for many years. But now the test, which has no reading and writing sections and consists largely of formulaic multiple-choice questions, may have come to the end of its extended run.
“Until last year, we required applicants to have TOEIC scores of 830 and above, but we judged that TOEIC isn’t an appropriate indicator of English skills, so we stopped asking for TOEIC scores,” says Lee Jeong, head of personnel at Industrial Bank of Korea.
Korean companies have seen a growing number of new employees with high scores on the TOEIC and TOEFL tests, but they found that high scores didn’t always guarantee practical English skills for the workplace. To solve this problem, employers decided to depend less on the test scores and more on their own ways in evaluating the English skills of an applicant. Many companies are introducing their own English assessment methods at present. Most of them conduct interviews only in English.
For example, Samsung Electronics will not accept job applicants who are unable to pass an English interview with a native English speaker.
According to a job recruitment agency, 43 per cent of 120 big companies carried out English interviews last year to recruit new employees and most of the companies placed more importance on practical English skills.
Lee, a 28-year-old college senior, recently started to read English newspapers to prepare for English interviews. “I scored more than 900 on TOEIC, but that doesn’t help much for finding a job,” Lee said, “So I need to learn how to answer questions on social issues in English. English newspapers help me best.”
Many college students are going to private English institutes to effectively deal with changing English assessment methods. “Students who are seeking jobs tend to register at our institutes to learn English interview skills,”said Park Na-ri, an English teacher in Seoul.
