Systematic nurturing of technical talent is critical for SMEs

The 58th National Skills Competition [Courtesy of Samsung Electronics]

The advisory board and sponsors behind the collaborative campaign “Smart Industrial Powerhouse, Manufacturing Innovation Together,” jointly led by Maeil Business Newspaper and Samsung, are in agreement: nurturing technical talent under a comprehensive national support framework is essential to meeting Korean manufacturing demands.

“The most significant challenge faced by small and medium-sized enterprises is recruiting competent talent. The government is working on measures to address this demand-supply mismatch by pursuing improvements in job quality and expanding the talent pool,” Vice Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Sung-hee said.

“As developing technical talent involves various government bodies, it is essential to identify the core areas where talent cultivation is crucial from a national strategic perspective. We are currently formulating talent cultivation strategies for core areas based on urgency and importance.”

“We must understand regional and sector-specific characteristics to devise tailored policies and foster policy cooperation between regions for the circulation of talent,” People Power Party lawmaker Han Moo-kyung added.

“To broaden the scope of nurturing industrial technical talent at small and medium-sized enterprises, we need to deploy policy instruments more extensively, focusing on fostering and supporting traditional technical talent and their industrial placement,” according to Yonsei University professor Leem Choon-seong.

Han’s fellow People Power Party lawmaker Yun Chang-hyun echoed this viewpoint. “The government should establish a dedicated organization for nurturing technical talent and develop a fundamental plan for technical talent cultivation. Beyond the existing educational system, there is an urgent need to establish a specialized system for technical talent cultivation,” he said.

Yang Hyang-ja, the leader of the Hope of Korea Party, added, “Companies or industrial complexes should directly establish and operate in-house graduate schools or specialized departments with universities to address this issue.”