90,000 Digital Talents to Be Nurtured Through Public-Private Partnership by Ministry of Science and ICT

Yoon Administration's 'Training 1 Million Digital Talents' Initiative
Participation by NHN, Kakao Enterprise, Shinsegae I&C, etc.
Demand Organizations Include NHN Cloud and Sapeon

The Ministry of Science and ICT held the "Public-Private Cooperation Digital Talent Development Proclamation Ceremony and On-site Meeting" on the morning of the 8th at NHN headquarters in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, announcing plans to nurture approximately 90,000 digital talents by 2027. The photo shows Minister Jong-ho Lee (fourth from the left) and attendees posing for a commemorative photo. Photo by Min-young Cha

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] The Ministry of Science and ICT has taken on the role of a 'bridgehead' connecting private companies and universities in line with the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's goal of 'training one million digital talents.' The industry also shares the goal of 'nurturing young people who will lead the era of digital hegemony' and has decided to drive the cultivation of convergent talents together.

On the morning of the 8th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held a 'Public-Private Cooperation Digital Talent Training Declaration Ceremony and On-site Meeting' at the NHN headquarters in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, announcing this new vision. They will invest 110.9 billion won in six public-private cooperative talent training projects led and participated in by companies to train about 10,000 people and a total of 90,000 by 2027.

This aligns with the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's policy to nurture one million digital talents by 2027 to solve the software (SW) manpower shortage in the era of digital transformation. Minister Lee Jong-ho of the Ministry of Science and ICT also stated last month upon his inauguration, "We must nurture talents across all age groups, focusing on young researchers," and added, "We need to establish a foundation to improve the qualitative level of talent training through differentiated programs, curricula, and infrastructure improvements, as well as research projects."

The Ministry of Science and ICT will newly introduce the 'SW Academy,' a company-led university-linked education program, and the 'Network-type Campus SW Academy,' an education program uniting regional universities, local governments, and regional industries. Participants in talent development include the Korea Software Industry Association, NHN, Kakao Enterprise, Knowledge Cube, NHN Academy, and Shinsegae I&C. Demand companies for manpower include cloud company NHN Cloud and Sapion, an AI semiconductor company affiliated with SK Telecom. KT Convergence Technology Institute, LG AI Research Institute, and Innovation Academy will also participate as experts in related projects.

Minister Lee Jong-ho of the Ministry of Science and ICT said, "Swift and bold measures by the government and private sector to respond to the industry's manpower shortage are more urgent than ever," and urged, "Let us work together in the public and private sectors to create a talent ladder so that excellent talents can be nurtured."

Kim Jae-woo, head of NHN Academy, said, "To resolve the quantitative and qualitative mismatch of digital talents, it is important to have talent training led by private companies, the demand side of talent," and added, "Public-private cooperative talent training is very meaningful as an attempt to change the talent training paradigm in that companies directly educate the talents they want on-site."

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