The Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDK) will re-administer a national technical qualification exam after its questions were disclosed in advance.
The agency said on the 27th that it had confirmed the questions for the practical skills test of the General Mechanical Engineer national technical qualification exam, held on the 26th of this month, had been leaked beforehand, and decided to have 57 of the total 1,474 test-takers retake the exam.
The questions for the General Mechanical Engineer practical skills test held on the 26th were opened and used at one test site on the 25th, a day before the exam, due to negligence by staff and test proctors. The content of the questions was subsequently confirmed to have been shared on test-related online communities.
The agency judged that this could cause serious problems for the fairness of the exam and equity among test-takers, and decided to have all 57 people who took the test at that site on the 26th retake the exam.
Test-takers subject to the retest can choose to sit the exam between the 31st of this month and the 5th of next month. They may take the test at HRDK-affiliated institutions within their desired region. The agency also plans to pay compensation to affected test-takers in accordance with relevant guidelines.
The agency said it would promptly decide on the retest schedule, location, and method, announce them through Q-Net, and notify the affected test-takers individually.
In addition, the agency plans to conduct an internal special audit to accurately analyze the cause of the incident and take stern measures against the staff and test proctors responsible.
"We sincerely apologize for the damage to the credibility of the national qualification exams caused by this retest, and for the distress caused to the affected test-takers and related parties," an HRDK official said. "We will implement the relevant measures as swiftly as possible and do our best to restore public trust in the national qualification exams."
In qualification exams administered by the agency, a computer error in the first round of the certified labor consultant exam in June last year led to non-attendees being announced as passers, and in 2023, an error occurred in setting the questions for the patent attorney exam.
