Restructuring of Industrial Innovation Talent Development Project... Addition of Secondary Batteries and Carbon, etc.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) announced on the 25th that they will publicize the implementation plan for the 'Sector Council Human Resources Development Project' and newly select the secretariat for the council.

The Sector Council (SC) is a private-led human resources development consultative body composed of industry-specific trade associations, leading companies, related academia, and research institutions.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has been promoting the SC project since 2004 to discover manpower demand led by the industry and develop educational programs. Since 2018, it has been supporting 4.5 billion KRW annually across 23 industrial sectors.

The Ministry and KIAT have reorganized the project from this year by adjusting the support sectors of the SC and strengthening its functions. This is to expand linkage with industrial policies such as fostering new industries and innovating core industries, and to effectively respond to changes in manpower demand due to the transition to convergent and complex industrial structures.

First, the SC-supported industries were adjusted from the existing 23 sectors to 20 sectors. The Semiconductor, Automobile, and Electronics SCs redefined their roles focusing on new industries such as next-generation semiconductors, future cars, and Internet of Things (IoT) home appliances, and new SCs were established in promising fields such as secondary batteries, carbon, and nano.

Additionally, the SC secretariat is required to perform mandatory tasks beyond the statutory functions such as grasping the current status of manpower supply and demand by industry, analyzing education and training needs, and developing specialized education and training programs, as well as supporting job fairs, engineering education innovation centers, and reemployment support for retired personnel.

In the future, the SC plans to expand cooperation in areas such as timely delivery of field manpower demand and employment linkage by signing memorandums of understanding with existing manpower training project institutions such as engineering education innovation centers (bachelor’s level) and industrial innovation talent growth support (master’s and doctoral levels).

The Ministry and KIAT will select the reorganized SC secretariats for 20 industrial sectors in June after a one-month public announcement starting from the 26th and a 10-day objection period.

Detailed information can be found on the websites of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KIAT.

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