KOICA's training program supports the Human Resources Development (HRD) of partner countries and plays a critical role in narrowing the knowledge gap between developed and developing countries. This program aims to share important technical skills and knowledge as well as to build capacities for sustainable development. To meet this goal, KOICA invites technicians, researchers, and policy makers for training and education in Korea, and shares Korea's development experience and knowledge. The training program strives to help developing countries design their own effective development policies and use suitable technologies.

Since 1991, KOICA has offered 2,007 courses on sectors such as education, governance, rural development, industry & energy, and information & communication technology. Thus far, approximately 32,200 participants from 164 countries have participated in training courses offered by KOICA. Training courses are classified into regular courses, special courses, country-specific courses, and joint courses conducted in partnership with international organizations and other donor agencies.

In 2008, KOICA considered the needs and demands of individual partner countries and drastically expanded the number of country-specific courses in order to help them achieve their development policy targets and mid-term assistance plans. To accommodate requests to increase the number of trainees, KOICA also endeavored to increase the budget and improve program arrangements. Furthermore, in order to handle the higher number of country-specific courses, KOICA improved the division of work within the program, launched the local training course model, and strengthened post-training support activities. Through system advancement and program reform, a framework was established for the efficient management of the courses and trainees, and the training program improved as a whole.

(1) Budget
In 2008, KOICA provided 290 training courses for for almost 4,100 participants from 111 countries. Courses were offered in fields such as education, health, governance, rural development, information & communication technology (ICT), industry & energy, and environment. Compared with 2007, the number of participants increased by 22.9%, and the budget also showed 10.7% increase.

By Region

The basic tenet of maintaining strong cooperation with the Asian region was unchanged, while for countries such as China and Thailand who begin to play their roles as emerging donors, the volume of aid decreased slightly. We also put more emphasis on training courses for African countries. In order to continue the support reconstruction of Iraq, the Middle East remained an important partner region.

By Sectoral Priority

KOICA’s training programs are centered on areas such as public governance and administrative capacity (36.5% of the courses), industry & energy (18.9% of the courses), and Environment & Gender (11.7% of the courses) along with courses on education, rural development, health, disaster relief, and the Information& Communication Technology.
ㅇ Education: Vocational training, Capacity Building for school teachers, etc.
ㅇ Rural Development: Irrigation development, Rice-growing technologies, Horticulture, Saemaeul New Community Movement, etc.
ㅇ Health: Tuberculosis control, Family planning, Water resources development and management, etc.
ㅇ Industry & Energy: Global Navigation Satellite System, Electric power generation, Korean-style atomic power generation, etc.
ㅇ Disaster Relief & Reconstruction: Prevention of disasters
ㅇ Information & Communication Technology: ICT policy-making, Digitalization of administrative information, Digitalization of customs administration, etc.
ㅇ Governance: Crime Prevention, Criminal Justice, Training of public servants, Customs administration and related techniques, etc.
ㅇ Environment & Gender: Forest management, Wastewater treatment, Sustainable management of the APEC marine environment, etc.

By Type of Training

Training courses are differentiated according to the purpose of the training. KOICA offers Rugular Training Program (pre-designed introductory training courses for the initial exloploration of cooperation area), Country-focused Training Program (in-depth course suitable for the needs of the participating country), and Scholarship Program (long-term research program for Master's degree). While most of KOICA’s training program is centered on Regular Training Program, we plan to increase the proportion of Country-focused Training Program, a tailored course that takes into consideration the development contexts and needs of partner countries.

(2) Improvement of the Training Program
Training courses have been tailor-made and improved based on the requests made by partner countries. These changes led to a higher level of satisfaction from the participants.

Classification of Training Courses

For effective implementation of the training courses, KOICA identified the objective and development strategy for each type of training program. The differentiated strategies for each type of program are as follows:
Based on preliminary surveys, policy discussions, and workshops, KOICA identified the major development challenges facing each partner country, and expanded the number of country-specific courses. As a result, the number of participants of the country-specific courses increased from 51% of the total trainees in 2007 to 53% in 2008.
Ever since long-term degree and research courses were introduced in November 2005, their importance has increased greatly. In 2006, a long-term degree course was established for Iraqi officials with higher levels of education. Currently, there are 7 degree courses offered at 7 Korean universities .