"Will Seek Measures to Support Youth Employment"…Korea Employers Federation Holds Youth Employment Support Network Meeting

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) held the '1st Youth Employment Support Network Meeting' on the 24th and promised to prepare measures to support the expansion of the youth employment support project.

This was the first meeting held since the launch of the Youth Employment Support Network on August 24, attended by KEF, the Ministry of Employment and Labor, major companies such as Samsung Electronics, POSCO, SK Hynix, as well as expert support groups and research teams.

Park Hwa-jin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "The Youth Employment Support Network plays an important role in expanding the youth employment support project jointly promoted by KEF and the government. We hope that the business community, experts, and government will gather ideas to expand youth employment support programs and prepare creative alternatives to greatly empower young job seekers."

At the meeting, the 'Samsung Youth SW Academy (SSAFY)' was introduced as an excellent case of a youth employment support program. SSAFY is a representative CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program created by Samsung Electronics with the purpose of contributing to the expansion of youth jobs.

Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, has been putting great effort into SSAFY to the extent that after his release on parole on the 13th of last month, he chose the SSAFY training site as his first external schedule excluding court dates.

Samsung Electronics conducts an employment-linked software education program through SSAFY for job seekers and prospective graduates under the age of 29, and bears all the education costs.

Yoo Jong-min, Executive Director of Samsung Electronics, mentioned, "Among the 2,087 graduates who have completed SSAFY so far, 1,601, accounting for 77%, have been employed at 544 major domestic and international companies including Samsung Electronics."

Professor Cho Joon-mo of Sungkyunkwan University, who gave a presentation on the topic of 'Corporate HR Directions and Tasks for Fostering the Youth Employment Ecosystem' at the meeting, also mentioned SSAFY and emphasized the need for training to foster the youth employment ecosystem from an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) perspective.

Professor Cho said, "We need to establish a job empathy platform where companies and youth jointly realize social value. For this, joint efforts from stakeholders and economic organizations are necessary."

Ryu Ki-jung, Executive Director of KEF, emphasized, "Going forward, we will work with companies, the government, and expert support groups to devise various support measures so that more companies can join the youth employment support membership."