Sixty specialized schools and 863 firms will take part in the government’s project of combining curriculum-centered vocational training in South Korea with apprenticeship programs in Germany and Switzerland. 
 
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment and Labor unveiled this year's plan for the concurrent cooperative education during a ceremony at Seongdong Technical High School in Seoul on Thursday.
 
Some 27-hundred students of the participating schools will receive basic training at the selected firms while continuing their academic studies at school. The experience is likely to help them secure jobs after graduation.  
Participating firms will be able to save costs in retraining new employees while securing outstanding manpower at an early stage. 
 
A similar project was carried out on a trial basis at nine schools, including Incheon Mechanical Technical High School and Sihwa Technical High School, last year.
 
The Education Ministry plans to operate the project on some 200 specialized schools by 2017.