262.6 Billion KRW Invested in AI and SW Talent Development This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] This year, 262.6 billion KRW will be invested in nurturing talent in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and software (SW).

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 7th, a plan to nurture 100,000 core AI·SW talents by 2025, with an investment of about 1 trillion KRW to cultivate digital talents needed in the industry, has been underway since last year.

This year, two additional AI graduate schools will be selected, expanding the total to 10 schools to nurture master's and doctoral level talents equipped with AI expertise and application skills. The SW Star Lab, which supports excellent research labs developing core source technologies in the SW field, will select 6 additional labs in areas such as AI and big data, supporting a total of 42 labs.

SW-centered universities, which have led innovation in university SW education, plan to select 9 universities. Especially this year, with the establishment of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) specialized track, some of the 9 universities will be allocated to small and medium-sized universities (with enrollment under 10,000 students).

The Innovation Academy, a two-year non-regular education program, will select a total of 500 trainees and expand educational space (from basement level 1 to 5th floor, approximately 6,600 square meters).

Additionally, a new "(tentative name) AI Education and Research Hub" will be established (2021?2025, total project cost 44.5 billion KRW) to serve as a focal point for open collaborative research among universities, companies, and research institutes, promoting large-scale advanced AI research and R&D-centered top-tier talent development.

AI·SW education will also be further expanded to ensure that traditional key industries such as regional industries and manufacturing do not fall behind in the digital transformation.

Following the expansion of the ICT Innovation Square, a regional AI education hub, from one hub in the metropolitan area to five major hubs nationwide through the 2020 supplementary budget, this year, to improve education quality, the pool of expert instructors across the five hubs will be integrated for joint recruitment, and an operating institution council will be launched to share excellent outcomes.

To strengthen AI utilization capabilities in the industrial field, the AI capacity-building project for industrial professionals, newly established last year, will expand from 6 sectors to 12 sectors this year.

Furthermore, to enhance AI basic literacy among elementary and middle school students, over 500 schools nationwide will be designated as AI leading schools, and educational operations will be supported.

To foster creative SW practical talents early, a new SW Meister High School, which provides demand-tailored education for the SW industry, will open one new school in Busan in March.

An online AI education platform will also be established. This year, an ISP (Information Strategy Planning) will be developed for platform construction, and full-scale platform operation is planned to begin next year.

Kim Jeong-sam, Director of Software Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “As investments in talent development have recently expanded significantly due to the plan to nurture 100,000 core AI·SW talents and the establishment of large new projects, we will strengthen performance management and actively support the smooth supply of talents needed by the industry.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.