“From Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer to Drones”… The Future of Agtech Blooming in Wonju Yeongseo High School’s Practice Field

In midsummer August, the doors to the Department of Industrial Machinery practice field at Yeongseo High School in Wonju, Gangwon Province, were wide open. Although it was vacation, several students in work clothes were gathered in front of a tractor engine. They loosen bolts, lay out parts, reassemble them, and time themselves. It is the final stretch of practice ahead of the FFK (Future Farmers of Korea) National Competition, to be held in Daegu from September 15 to 17, and the National Skills Competition, which will take place in Incheon starting on the 22nd of this month.

At Yeongseo High School, an agriculture-focused specialized high school with 522 students and 30 classes, the Department of Industrial Machinery teaches students how to take apart and repair agricultural machinery such as tractors, combines, rice transplanters, and power tillers. Currently, 53 students are enrolled from the first to third years. We met Hwang Min-ho, the teacher guiding the students there, as well as Jeong Yeon-seong and Han Du-jin, who were working in the practice field.

“From the Department of Agricultural Machinery to the Department of Industrial Machinery… The name has changed, but the roots remain the same”
The roots of the Department of Industrial Machinery lie in the Department of Agricultural Engineering. Teacher Hwang Min-ho explained the department’s history this way. “At first, there was just one Department of Agricultural Engineering, and from there it split into agricultural civil engineering and agricultural machinery. High school department names generally tend to follow the names of university departments, and as universities changed, high school department names changed along with them. The name is Department of Industrial Machinery, but the core of what we teach is still agricultural machinery,” he said.

The curriculum is clearly staged. First-year students focus on fundamentals, centered on agricultural machinery, hydraulic equipment, and electricity (circuits). In the second and third years, the curriculum shifts to major-specific practical subjects, divided into two pillars: “installation and maintenance of agricultural machinery” and “construction machinery maintenance.” It is structured so students can perform tasks immediately in the real field.

“There is a reason we first teach agricultural machinery, hydraulics, and electricity in the first year,” Hwang said. “Whether it is a forklift, an excavator, or a loader, what is inside is ultimately an internal combustion engine and hydraulics. If you build the fundamentals, you can understand any machine you move on to.”
 

From first-year forklift licenses to second-year industrial engineer written exams: a “certification roadmap”
A defining feature of this department is its tightly designed path for obtaining certifications. Hwang described it as “our department’s roadmap.” In the first year, students obtain certificates as forklift operators, excavator operators, and loader operators. They then compete in the agricultural machinery theory and practice category at the nationwide Young Farmers Festival (FFK). Because much of the content of the 40-question exam in this competition overlaps with the written exams for the Agricultural Machinery Maintenance Craftsman and Agricultural Machinery Operation Craftsman certifications, the process of preparing for the competition naturally leads to obtaining certifications in the second year.

Students also take on the challenge of obtaining the Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer certification. The Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer is a certification designed to train professional personnel who handle the manufacturing, repair, maintenance, and performance testing of agricultural machinery and related equipment. To sit for the exam, applicants must generally be graduates or prospective graduates of a junior college or higher in related departments such as agricultural machinery or mechanical engineering, or have at least two years of practical experience in a related job. It is a qualification exam that is usually not easy for current high school students to take.

The pass rate is not high, either. According to the status of Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer examinations on Q-NET, operated by the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, the annual pass rate for the written exam in 2025 was only 24.1%. However, high school students who place in regional skills competitions are granted eligibility to take the Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer exam. That is why students in this department participate in regional skills competitions.

“For a high school student to take the Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer exam, the conditions are quite demanding, but the school runs a systematic program so students can take on the challenge,” Hwang emphasized. “Obtaining an industrial engineer certification in high school is truly remarkable.”

In fact, Han Du-jin (18, second year), currently a second-year student, qualified through a skills competition award, passed the written exam for the Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer certification, and took the practical exam on the 23rd of last month. He is awaiting the announcement of successful candidates in September.
 

In addition, Yeongseo High School’s second-year curriculum includes an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) subject. With funding secured through an AI competency-building project by Wonju City and the Gangwon State Office of Education, the school supports around three outstanding students each year in completing a drone certification course. If they fulfill the required training hours and flight hours, they can obtain up to a Class 1 certificate, and some go on to earn instructor qualifications or other construction machinery certifications as well.

“To operate a drone carrying pesticides, you ultimately need Class 1. Major agricultural machinery companies sell crop-spraying drone models, so if you are going to provide service, you need to know about them. If a student wants to do it, there are plenty of paths open to learn,” Hwang said.

The department’s circumstances are not always smooth. Current enrollment is 20 first-year students, 11 second-year students, and 22 third-year students, with only the second-year cohort notably small. Hwang said, “Around that time, the number of students in the district itself was small, and there were also cases where students left the department midway because it did not fit their aptitude.” The current second-year students were born in 2009, a year when the number of births nationwide was 444,849 and the total fertility rate was 1.15 (Statistics Korea), the lowest ever at the time.

Jeong Yeon-seong: “It was cool to see my older brother win awards and go overseas”
Jeong Yeon-seong (19, third year), however, chose this path after seeing his older brother, who is seven years his senior. The memory of watching his brother, an alumnus of the same department, win awards at competitions and travel to Taiwan with sponsorship left a strong impression. “It looked really cool to see my brother win awards and go abroad. I thought I wanted to try doing that too,” Jeong recalled.

He went on to obtain certificates as a forklift operator, excavator operator, loader operator, Agricultural Machinery Maintenance Craftsman, and Class 1 drone operator. The written exams were not easy, but for some categories he received exemptions from the written exam thanks to skills built up through competition preparation. He won a silver award at last year’s Gangwon Province Skills Competition and a silver medal at this year’s FFK Gangwon Province Competition, earning eligibility to participate in national competitions. He said these competitions determined his career path. “When I entered a competition in my second year, I became very interested,” Jeong said. “That was when I became certain that I wanted to keep doing this work.”

Jeong has already secured a job. Starting in October, he will work for a company in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, that handles agricultural machinery parts. He also plans to obtain the Agricultural Machinery Operation Craftsman certificate in the future.

Asked whether he would recommend this field to younger students, he nodded without hesitation. “People say AI will replace other jobs, but in the end, this is work that people have to do with their hands. It is work you can do for a long time, and I think that means it can be recognized even more in the future,” he said, expressing his conviction.
 

Han Du-jin, who loved working with machines, now has his sights set on becoming a master craftsman
Han Du-jin has liked machines since he was young. While looking for a high school to attend during middle school, he learned that Yeongseo High School had a Department of Industrial Machinery and decided to enroll. “I chose it because it seemed to focus mainly on agricultural machinery. I have always really liked working with machines,” he said, introducing himself.

Although he is only in his second year, he has already obtained nine certifications. They are forklift operator, excavator operator, loader operator, Agricultural Machinery Maintenance Craftsman, Agricultural Machinery Operation Craftsman, Class 1 drone operator, tower crane operator, mobile crane operator, and road roller operator. In addition, he passed the written exam for the Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer certification and won the gold award (first place) at the recent Gangwon Province Skills Competition.

His goal is to become an agricultural machinery civil servant at an agricultural technology center. With the aim of becoming a technical civil servant equipped with on-site practical skills, he is preparing for Korean language, English, Korean history, and two major subjects while also participating in competitions and earning certifications.

His appetite for certifications remains strong. “I want to obtain higher-level certificates like the Agricultural Machinery Industrial Engineer. I want to go from industrial engineer to engineer, and later even to master craftsman,” he emphasized.

Han also said he would recommend this path to younger students. “There is definitely demand for agricultural machinery, but there are few people who know how to do it. I think that means there are opportunities,” he said.

The practice field keeps running even during vacation
Both students are spending this summer vacation preparing for competitions. Jeong Yeon-seong is preparing for the FFK National Competition to be held in Daegu in September. His event is disassembling and reassembling a power tiller engine. Within the set time, he must completely disassemble the engine, reassemble it, and make it operate normally. There is no method other than repeated training.

“If I rest just because it is vacation, I lose my feel for it. If I win an award here, I can be recognized even after I get a job, and above all, I want to see how far I can go,” Jeong said as he examined a machine. He is also preparing for his driver’s license during the vacation.

Han Du-jin’s summer is packed as well. He is preparing consecutively for the National Skills Competition in August and the FFK National Competition in September. The Skills Competition tasks are broad, covering tractor engines and tractors overall, combine hydraulic circuits, and maintenance of rice transplanter electrical circuits. He will participate in the FFK National Competition as the second-place qualifier from the Gangwon Province competition.

“I won gold at the provincial competition, but the national competition is different again. I come out almost every day during vacation to make it completely familiar to my hands,” he said, reaffirming his determination.
 

“The day we solved the runaway-start problem, I was really proud”
We asked the two students about the most memorable practice session. Jeong Yeon-seong chose a tractor maintenance practice from last year. “A friend I was doing maintenance with assembled something incorrectly, which bent a part. We assembled it as it was and started the engine, and then a ‘runaway start’ occurred, where the engine would not shut off,” he said. “We barely managed to turn it off and took it apart again to find the cause, and it turned out that if the control rack is bent, the engine will not shut off. We straightened it again and finished the repair. I was really proud that I understood the machine and fixed it myself.”

Han Du-jin cited as an advantage the fact that there are people nearby he can ask. “If I get stuck, I ask seniors or teachers. Then they always explain things well. That is why practice is fun,” he said.

Hwang pointed to the same thing. In the end, what holds students’ interest is not the number of certifications, but the experience of a broken machine coming back to life in their own hands.

“It is true that as word has spread that our students obtain many certificates, the department has become known among younger students in the neighborhood,” Hwang Min-ho said. “But what really stays with them is that very moment when something that was not working starts working. Once students have had a taste of that, they come to the practice field on their own. Just like during this vacation...” His words lingered. Amid a shortage of specialized personnel in the agtech field, seeing students quietly build their careers offered a glimpse of hope. And so the summer at the Department of Industrial Machinery at Yeongseo High School in Wonju, at its hottest, was passing by.