The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (Chairperson Byung Chul Hyun) decided that the act of requiring '(expected) university degrees' to apply for the Level II Clinical Psychologist Qualification Examination is tantamount to discrimination; therefore, the Commission has recommended:
The Minister of Employment and Labor and the Minister of Health and Welfare amend the 「Enforcement Regulation on the Act on the Encouragement of Technical Skills」 to allow application for the Level II Clinical Psychologist Qualification examination without imposing any requirements based on particular level of education, irrespective of majors or courses taken.
Petitioner A (33) sought to acquire the Clinical Psychologist Qualification Certificate after graduating a vocational college; however, due to the requirement that only 'graduates and expected graduates of universities' are eligible to take the Level II Clinical Psychologist Qualification Exam, a lowest level of qualification in that field, Petitioner A was unable to apply for the exam. Petitioner A has then submitted a complaint before the NHRCK on 2013. 6. 25. alleging that it is discrimination to limit the opportunity to apply for the National Technical Qualification Examination solely based on the level of education.
The Minister of Employment and Labor and the Minister of Health and Welfare have explained that assessment questions provided by the National Technical Qualification Examination were not suitable enough in verifying work capability of many applicants, necessitating imposition of an education/experience requirement on some qualification categories. They argued that 'university graduate/expected graduate' requirement was imposed on the Level II Clinical Psychologist Qualification Examination due to its occupational characteristics in treating life, physical safety and health which require highly advanced expertise.
In response, the NHRCK deemed it problematic that the current Enforcement Regulation on the Act on Encouragement of Technical Skills does not allow application from those who have acquired a 'vocational university degree' by majoring psychology at a vocational school or acquiring more than 80 credits on psychology courses from an online college while allowing application from those who have obtained a 4-year university degree without taking a single course on psychology. Moreover, it becomes more difficult to justify the imposition of a 4-year university degree requirement on the Level II Clinical Psychologist Qualification Examination irrespective of the level of expertise required to carry out occupational responsibilities, when it is considered that the acquisitor of that qualification is particularly responsible for duties related to patient's health and safety. Therefore, the NHRCK is compelled to hold that such requirement is tantamount to discrimination arising from the violation of right to equality.
Furthermore, discrimination based on education overlooks distinct qualities of individuals, distorting distribution and utilization of human resources and creating oversupply of degrees of education in a society. Considering the fact that currently there are various efforts to address discrimination based on education including the Bill on Prohibiting Discrimination based on Education and Redressing Rights that seeks to ban the acts of imposition of educational requirements on Qualification Examinations to acquire National Qualifications, it further necessitates to address the issue of educational requirements that is imposed irrespectively of the expertise relevant to the occupation.
In conclusion, the NHRCK recommends the Minister of Employment and Health and the Minister of Health and Welfare to amend the Enforcement Regulation on the Act on Encouragement of Technical Skills to allow for a reasonable application requirements to apply for the Level II Clinical Psychologist Qualification Examination.
Through this recommendation, the NHRCK hopes that a social custom would be implemented in which anyone can be assessed equitably based not on his/her education, but based on substantive abilities and skills of each individual that is required to carry out relevant job responsibilities.
End.
