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Public-private partnership offers better job opportunities for women with disabilities

By Lee Hae-rin

At the end of the corridor on the fourth floor of Seoul's Yongsan Station stands an unusually silent and small nail salon. Only soft, calming music flows in the background in lieu of chatter between employees and customers.

All nail artists here are women with hearing impairments. They communicate in written and spoken language by reading others' lips, sometimes with help from a tablet with an application that directly translates spoken word into text.

Titled "Seom-seom-ok-soo," which translates into "slender and delicate hands," the 13-meter-square-sized nail bar provides free nail care service for passengers holding Korea Train Express (KTX) tickets valid that day. It is the result of a public-private partnership that enables women with disabilities to join the labor market and prove their own expertise.

Baek Ji-yeon, 34, has been working there as a nail artist since April 2021. She majored in visual design in high school and dreamed of becoming a designer. She started working at a factory to earn money for university tuition after graduating high school, but people told her "there are so many people out there who are better than her," both in design and communication skills. For many years, she gave up on her dreams and worked at a cosmetics factory manufacturing hair dye products.

From left, nail artists Youn Mi-rea and Baek Ji-yeon who have hearing impairments check reservation schedules for nail services at the nail bar "Seom-seom-ok-soo" at central Seoul's Yongsan Station, Wednesday. The nail bar, jointly sponsored by KORAIL, the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the private sector, provides free nail care service for train passengers. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

When she saw the job ad from Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) and the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities (KEAD) looking for female nail artists with hearing impairments, she thought it was "a chance that must not be lost." After six months of training at KEAD's research institute for vocational education in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, she officially became a professional nail artist and an employee of SK Shieldus, an ICT company sponsoring the nail bar. She attained a national license in nail art and continues to work hard cultivating her expertise.

For 29-year-old Kim A-ron and 25-year-old Youn Mi-rea, the nail bar is their first workplace. They both remember how happy they were during their first day on the job.

Kim said she had also been frustrated to pursue her dreams in an artistic field like Baek. She has always been fond of art and skilled with her hands since childhood, majoring in Korean painting with dreams to become an illustrator. However, her dreams were let down as finding a job became even more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"That's when I thought I must hone some specialized skills and techniques," Kim said. She joined the nail bar two years ago and works the morning shift with Baek and Youn. She already owns five licenses related to nail art, but still goes to study after work. Recently, she has been studying eyelash extension and ingrown toenail treatment.