In the context of a decline in students and the aim of fostering and producing human resources in new industrial fields, there has been increasing pressure to reform universities from various aspects. In addition to the traditional formal curriculum, there is a need to establish a variety of non-formal educational courses and to operate flexible educational programs that are more closely linked to the workplace, and it is also an opportunity to reconsider the roles and functions of higher education institutions. The demand for lifelong vocational education is an extension of this context. Based on such a background, this paper traces how lifelong education and courses directly linked to occupations, were positioned in the development of higher education policy in Korea, and how they were incorporated into higher education institutions while changing their form or overlapping. The debate on vocational education in higher education can be divided into two views: one is that institutions need to play a part in the demand for lifelong vocational education, and the other is that it provides the educational activities necessary for non-traditional students, so that they can respond to a lifelong learning society. During the period of expansion of lifelong education, a variety of higher education institutions appeared, and the entrance selection and curriculum for adult learners were expanded. In the 2000s, there was a demand for the strengthening of economic competitiveness and the development of human resources in response to technological innovation, and higher education institutions began to attract attention as recipients of continuous vocational education to improve the abilities of adults. In addition, the introduction of alternative degree programs has encouraged adult learners to participate in vocational education, and as a policy method for building vocational education at universities, it has been revitalized through university financial support projects. The raison d’être of traditional universities has been questioned, and their functions and roles redefined. However, there are still many issues to be solved in the development of vocational education. First, vocational education has a peripheral position in university education. Second, there is still insufficient infrastructure to overcome the factors that hinder the participation of adult learners in vocational education. Lifelong education has been developed in a variety of learning contents and methods in response to the range of adult learners. Higher education institutions play an important role in such lifelong learning and vocational education. However, the vocational education provided by those institutions to adult learners does not need to be limited to the traditional scope and content, nor is it limited to training for vocational skills in a limited sense, but be expanded in a comprehensive sense in relation to the professional life of adult learners.