Three Skill Certification Categories to Go Fully Online by 2027

(Central News Agency, reporter Wu Xinyun, Taipei, 11th) Attention, skill certification examinees. Starting next year, three categories of exams will be fully switched to computer-based testing, including Employment Service Level B, International Trade Level C, and Store Service. The Ministry of Labor's Skill Testing Center stated that the difficulty level will not be lowered with the online test, and it will also prevent discrepancies in grade evaluation.

The Skill Testing Center of the Workforce Development Agency, Ministry of Labor, will soon amend the 2027 skill certification regulations. Some categories will be changed to online testing, some will be changed to biennial implementation, and some are scheduled to be discontinued.

Yang Guosheng, Director of the Skill Testing Center of the Workforce Development Agency, Ministry of Labor, said in a media interview that the National Skill Certification is held three times a year. The three categories that were originally paper-and-pencil tests—Employment Service Level B, International Trade Level C, and Store Service—will be fully switched to computer-based testing starting next year.

Director Yang pointed out that these three categories previously used paper-and-pencil tests, which required centralized grading, leading to longer waiting times for results. Centralized grading also inevitably led to occasional omissions and grading discrepancies. Switching to digital testing in the future can avoid these issues.

Regarding concerns that the difficulty might be lowered with the online test, Director Yang emphasized that after the Occupational Safety and Health Level B category switched to online testing, it attracted more examinees, but the pass rate remained at a certain level, showing that a quality control mechanism is still in place. Furthermore, the question bank for skill certifications is regularly updated, so there will be no reduction in difficulty.

According to statistics, last year a total of 422,133 people registered for the three sessions of the National Skill Certification. Among them, 7,308 registered for Employment Service Level B, 2,420 for International Trade Level C, and 109 for Store Service.

According to the draft, some categories will be discontinued or changed to biennial implementation. Director Yang said that the two categories of Chemical-Organic Substance Inspection and Inorganic Substance Inspection currently do not have mandatory certification requirements for related work, and the number of applicants is not high, making the administrative cost of conducting them inefficient. Therefore, they will be discontinued starting in 2029. Meanwhile, three categories related to farmland irrigation and drainage will be changed to biennial implementation. (Editor: Li Xizhang) 1150611