National Tomorrow Learning Card (Naeil Baeum Card)
National Tomorrow Learning Card
What is the National Tomorrow Learning Card (Naeil Baeum Card)?
- A government voucher card that helps cover individual training costs
- A five-year account limit of roughly KRW 3 (≈ US$1)–5 million
- Application and enrollment all happen on Work24
What the National Tomorrow Learning Card really changes is who pays for learning. A conversation that used to end with "That course isn't in this year's training budget" now goes differently: by using the personal account limit, someone can start next month without internal approval. For training managers, it adds a third sourcing route beyond launching in-house courses and outsourcing. For employees, it is a personal asset that stays with them even if they quit or change jobs.
The standard limit is KRW 3 million (≈ US$2,240). It rises to KRW 4 (≈ US$1)–5 million for recipients of the National Employment Support Program, basic livelihood recipients, workers in special employment types, and others, depending on eligibility. It is not fully free: you are expected to pay part of the cost yourself, and the share depends on the employment rate of the training occupation and your income bracket. By contrast, policy-designated programs such as National Strategic Industry training or K-Digital Training require no self-payment, and they include a training allowance if you meet the attendance threshold. It is also a different program from employer-sponsored vocational training (reimbursable courses), where the company pays and trains employees during work hours. The funding source and the applicant differ, so the two should not be combined.
The most common mistake in practice is the idea of "getting employees to apply for the card and running our required training through it." The moment a company pays the co-payment for an employee, enrolls all employees in a particular course in bulk, or marks attendance for an employee who worked overtime, it counts as fraudulent training and improper benefit receipt, which can lead to clawback of training fees, suspension of card use, and sanctions on the training provider. Also, an account that has been used up does not reopen for five years, so it is common to burn through the limit on an eye-catching short course and then have nothing left just when a job change is needed. Giving guidance is fine, but it is safest to leave enrollment, payment, and attendance in the individual's own hands.
Jongmu KimSpecialist in corporate talent development and job skills
Eun-a ChoExpert in communication, stress management, career development, and Millennial and Gen Z trainingThe program took its current form in January 2020, when the Ministry of Employment and Labor merged the Individual Training Account system (Naeil Baeum Card), previously run separately for unemployed and employed workers, into the National Tomorrow Learning Card. Applications and course searches used to go through the HRD-Net vocational training portal and are now consolidated under Work24.
Take a hypothetical case: Company A, an industrial valve manufacturer with 240 employees and annual revenue of about KRW 62 billion (≈ US$46,386,400). As it installed smart-factory equipment, it urgently needed shop-floor staff who could read production data, but the outsourced training quote came to KRW 1.8 million (≈ US$1,350) per person. Company A’s annual training budget was KRW 38 million (≈ US$28,400).
- HR Manager Kim opened the quote and said, "For 30 people that is KRW 54 (≈ US$1) million, which blows through the entire budget." Then Kim searched Work24 and found a course with the same curriculum for just a KRW 230,000 (≈ US$170) out-of-pocket payment.
- Manager Kim wrote in the internal notice, "This is not company-assigned training but a course you take with your own card, so everyone applies and pays individually," making clear from the start that the company would not cover the self-paid portion.
- Of the 32 applicants, 30 got the card. The 2 excluded under the income criterion were enrolled in external training instead, funded by KRW 3.6 million (≈ US$2,690) from the existing internal training budget.
- The production engineering team lead worked out new shift schedules with the foremen and took overtime off class evenings (Tuesdays and Thursdays), but repeated one rule at every morning briefing: "No proxy attendance checks, ever."
- Six months later, 28 of 30 had completed the course, a 93% completion rate. The company spent KRW 0 (≈ US$1) on training, and the KRW 38 million (≈ US$28,400) it saved went toward launching a team-leader leadership program.