2nd National Skill Contest for Vocational High School Students

Today's stamp commemorates the 2nd National Skill Contest for Vocational High School Students in 1971. I own one copy each of the souvenir sheet and stamp for this issue. To my knowledge this is the first and only stamp to commemorate the National Skill Contest for Vocational High School students in Korea. Some of the details surrounding this stamp are as follows:

• Date of Issue: 20 Oct 1971
• Scott Catalogue: 802
• Korea Postage stamp Catalogue (KPC): C517
• Quantity Produced: 30,000 s/s and 2,000,000 stamps

There was not much information available on the internet regarding the 2nd National Skill Contest for Vocational High School Students held in 1971. Thankfully the Korea Stamp Society has a description of this stamp listed on its website (http://www.pennfamily.org/KSS-USA/711020-787.htm). Here is a small snippet of what the KSS site included on this issue:

The Second National Skill Contest for Vocational High School Students will be held for two days beginning October 20, 1971, under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Education. Th

is year, students are expected to compete in a total of 23 events: five in agriculture (general husbandry, sericulture, livestock, agricultural product processing and forestry) at the College of Agriculture, Seoul National University; 12 in engineering (machinery, lathe, welding, molding, wood processing, carpentry, metal plate, electronics, electricity, civil engineering, architecture and automobile repairing) at Seoul Technical High School; three in commerce (commercial art, abacus calculation and typewriting) and another three in home economics (cooking, sewing and knitting) at Seoul Girl`s Commercial High School. To take part in the contest are a total of 462 students who have been selected through preliminary contests in all provinces and major cities and thereby recommended by educational superintendents of respective areas. 

Today vocational training in South Korea is still an option for students, although it does not seem to be a common practice for high schoolers. The current President of South Korea, Lee Myung-Bak, has placed emphasis on expanding vocational schools in South Korea to build upon the country's manufacturing base. Below is a picture of President Lee Myung-Bak from back in March 2010 when he toured a vocational school in the outskirts of Seoul.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of information I discovered while researching the topic of this stamp was the Korean government's role in creating a vocational training center in Afghanistan at the Bagram Airbase. I knew South Korea was part of ISAF and had troops serving in Afghanistan, but I did not realize they created a vocational training center to help offer training to the Afghan people. Incredible. Here's a picture from the first graduation ceremony of the Korean Vocational Training Center (KVTC) held on 08 December in Bagram...for more information on the KVTC in Bagram I highly recommend checking out the following sites: http://www.cjtf101.com/en/regional-command-east-news-mainmenu-401/3784-inaugural-class-graduates-korean-vocational-training-center.html and http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/korean-vocational-training-center-teachers-afghans-practical-skills.html

I'm always amazed at how much I can learn about a topic through studying Korean stamps. Today's topic was certainly no different...I really enjoyed myself and I'm happy to have this souvenir sheet and stamp in my collection as well.