Although companies often ask new hires about their practical work experience during the hiring process, college students rarely have opportunities to gain real-world work experience. This is because, even though students build expertise in their majors through coursework and engage in various job-hunting preparations, it is difficult for them to experience the problem-solving skills, collaboration abilities, and understanding of job responsibilities that companies require in an environment that closely resembles actual work. To bridge this gap, Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul) operates “CoREP (Core Role Expert Program),” a hands-on career support program that allows students to directly undertake tasks similar to those in the corporate world while still in school.
 
Regarded as one of Kookmin University’s flagship career support programs, CoREP goes beyond simply teaching students how to prepare for employment. It is designed to allow students to experience the entire process of completing a project—from analyzing companies and markets to planning business ideas, and from writing reports to delivering presentations. The program combines training in personal character, business mindset, and basic job skills such as marketing, planning, and accounting, while industry professionals serve as mentors to provide feedback throughout the project.
 
A key feature of the program is that students plan and execute the entire process themselves—from selecting a business topic and analyzing the corporate and market environment to drafting a proposal and presenting the final results. Rather than simply attending lectures and completing assigned tasks, students divide roles among team members, communicate with corporate representatives, and work to solve problems that might arise in real-world work situations.
 
There are also cases where these projects have led to actual business opportunities and job offers. An alumnus of the Department of Education, while still a student, worked on a project with the CoREP Distribution and Sales Team focused on “New Entry into the Domestic Market for Non-Iron Shirts” for a company that manufactures and exports men’s shirts. The proposal submitted by the students was recognized for its creativity and feasibility, winning the grand prize in a competition, and the student subsequently joined the company as a new employee in its domestic sales department. The students’ proposals did not end with a presentation; the company launched its own brand based on the proposed domestic market entry strategy and began actual sales. 
 
In addition, CoREP has seen instances where promotional and marketing strategies proposed by students were adopted by companies, and suggestions for improving production processes were implemented on-site.
 
The experience gained through CoREP is also being put to use in recent job searches. Cho Young-jun, an Automotive Engineering alumnus who joined Kia in a parts procurement role, cited CoREP as the university’s career support program he would most highly recommend. While working on a CoREP project, Cho gained hands-on experience solving problems alongside actual corporate representatives—including holding direct meetings with CEOs of small and medium-sized enterprises and negotiating product-related costs. He explained that this experience helped him describe his role and problem-solving processes in concrete terms on his resume and during interviews, more effectively than simply participating in a competition. In particular, his experience negotiating with company representatives and managing costs at that time aligns closely with his current role in parts procurement, where he manages pricing, delivery schedules, and quality for partner companies.
 
The program’s scope has also been expanded to reflect student needs. Following repeated feedback from existing CoREP participants that “it would have been great to experience this training a little earlier,” a separate program called “Junior CoREP” was established for lower-year students. Junior CoREP helps students explore their areas of interest through consultations with mentors and supports them in clarifying their career paths—through company analysis and the creation of career portfolios—before beginning full-fledged job preparation.
 
In this way, Kookmin University operates programs that allow students to gain professional experience tailored to their academic year and preparation stage, ranging from career exploration for lower-year students through Junior CoREP to CoREP’s industry-linked practical projects. The core of the program goes beyond simply providing job information; it focuses on enabling students to directly experience corporate work and supporting them in connecting the results gained through that process to actual employment.
 
Kookmin University, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, plans to further expand this field-oriented education by linking it to its mid- to long-term development plan, “KMU VISION 2035: EDGE.”
With the goal of becoming “a university that sets the standard for higher education,” the university is pursuing key development strategies such as establishing a student-centered educational system and expanding industry-academia collaboration. In particular, it aims to support students in acquiring the competencies required in the workplace while still in school through education and industry-academia collaboration projects that reflect the needs of society and industry. As a result of these employment strategies, the university ranked 9th among major universities in Seoul last year with an employment rate of 66.5%.
  
Kookmin University President Jeong Seung Ryul stated, “University education should not stop at students acquiring knowledge; it must lead to the development of competencies that enable them to apply that knowledge to solve problems in real-world settings.” He added, “As we mark our 80th anniversary, Kookmin University will further develop the strengths of our pragmatist education—which we have consistently emphasized—and continue to cultivate practical professionals needed by businesses and society through field-oriented programs such as CoREP.”