Korea Labor Foundation strengthens pre-entry safety training for Mongolian workers, to launch AI counseling next year

The Korea Labor Foundation is stepping up industrial safety training for Mongolian workers before they enter South Korea. Starting in the first half of next year, it will also roll out an AI-based counseling service for foreign workers from six countries — including Mongolia — to help them settle into Korean life and the workplace.

The foundation announced Friday that it is visiting Ulaanbaatar from Wednesday through Saturday to inspect local employment training and dispatch procedures and to strengthen cooperation with the Mongolian government and labor sector on employment and labor affairs.

The centerpiece of the visit is tightening the link between pre-departure training in Mongolia and post-arrival employment education in South Korea. The aim is to help foreign workers — who often face unfamiliar language and working conditions — learn basic industrial safety rules before they leave, supporting early workplace adjustment and accident prevention.

The foundation shared industrial safety training materials with Mongolian pre-employment training institutions and plans to align the content of local pre-departure courses with its own post-arrival employment education. On Aug. 28, it signed an MOU with the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency to prevent industrial accidents among foreign workers.

The foundation also inspected key sites in the employment permit system's dispatch process, including TOPIK testing centers and pre-entry health screening facilities. It agreed to share information on dispatch and employment training with Mongolia's Ministry of Family, Labor, Social Protection and Welfare and the Labor and Social Welfare Services Agency, and to strengthen cooperation on helping workers settle into Korean workplaces.

Post-arrival lifestyle support will also be expanded. The foundation currently provides Mongolian workers with support materials covering housing, transportation and medical care in South Korea. From the first half of next year, it plans to offer an AI-based counseling service called Talk-Up.

Talk-Up is aimed at foreign workers from six countries — Laos, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Tajikistan — who receive employment training at the foundation under the employment permit system. The service is designed to give them faster, easier access to information they need to adapt to life and work in South Korea.

The foundation is also pursuing cooperation to protect workers' rights and support Korean companies operating in Mongolia. It renewed an MOU originally signed in 2017 with the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions. The two organizations agreed to protect the labor rights of Mongolian workers in South Korea and to help Korean firms in Mongolia comply with local labor law and manage their workforce. They also plan to build a cooperative framework for sharing local labor issues and worker grievances to head off disputes before they arise.

The foundation visited the South Korean Embassy in Mongolia and the Korea International Cooperation Agency to share assessments of development cooperation needs in the employment and labor sector and to discuss ways to identify official development assistance projects the two countries could pursue together.

"We will more closely connect pre- and post-arrival employment training and industrial safety support, while working with the embassy, KOICA and others to identify international cooperation projects that match Mongolia's policy needs — steadily broadening employment and labor cooperation between the two countries," said Park Jong-pil, secretary-general of the Korea Labor Foundation.