• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.13 no.8
• /
• pp.69-82
• /
• 2015

This article critically examines the backgrounds and meanings of National Competency Standards (NCS) that is employed by Korean colleges for managing performance-based, competency-based curriculum. Findings are as follows: 1) the NCS-based curriculum was primarily adopted to enhance students' business competency for their successes in a competitive job market. 2) NCS is questioned its efficacy to resolve Korean employment issues in a serious economic structure in which a growing number of jobless youth and aged employees and education discrimination are involved. 3) NCS, with its emphasis on the Tyler Rationale and principles of scientific curriculum development, has many criticisms due to its technical approaches to educational processes and needs to be replaced with an alternative paradigm. 4) This article suggests that administrators, policy makers, and educators seek ways to resolve NCS issues considering contextual features of Korean job market and rethinking NCS ideology in the education process. A need for curriculum reconceptualisation is discussed.