[Interview] "Thanks to KT 'Able School,' locals and non-majors also built AI practical skills and won awards"

Able School 2nd Cohort Wins Grand Prize at Ministry of Employment and Labor Hackathon
78% Employment Rate After Training...Cultivating Practical AI and DX Talent
"Regional Students Receive Same Quality Education as Capital Area...Aspire to Develop Solutions Helping Vulnerable Groups"

The 'Mentos' team from KT Able School participating in the hackathon is giving a presentation. Photo by KT

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Soo-yeon] "Through KT Able School, I gained experience performing various mini projects such as data analysis projects utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) in an environment identical to real-world settings. Meeting talented friends who share the same dream, we won awards in major competitions and inspired me to become a developer."

On the 8th, Able School 2nd batch trainees, called 'Abler'?Lee Sae-bom (23), Seo Jung-yoon (24), and Moon Sang-don (26)?shared their thoughts on the training. While attending Able School, they participated in the Ministry of Employment and Labor's 'K-Digital Training Hackathon' as the 'Mentors' team and won the grand prize.

Able School is a program that nurtures young people into practical AI (artificial intelligence) and digital transformation (DX) talents and connects them to employment. Since COVID-19, as various industries accelerate DX, demand for skilled personnel has surged, but supplying practical talents remains challenging. KT has experience operating training programs, including retraining internal employees during its transition to a DigiCo (digital platform company). Based on this know-how, KT aims to train 5,000 young people by 2026 and contribute to solving youth unemployment and IT workforce shortages by linking them to employment at KT Group or promising startups.

Focusing on practical skills, the employment rate of the first batch trainees reached 78% as of last October. Trainees also evaluated that the program greatly helped develop their practical abilities. Seo said, "At the end of each weekly topic, we completed a team project on that subject seven times in total. Most projects were related to solutions actually developed by KT, so it was very helpful for practical work. I also learned how to communicate with team members and resolve conflicts when opinions clashed." Lee agreed, saying, "While doing mini projects, I was able to access KT’s natural language processing (NLP) and vision-based internal data, which was great."

(From left) Isaebom Lee, Sangdon Moon, and Jungyun Seo participating in a video interview.

The Mentors team consisted of three majors and three non-majors, with ages ranging from 23 to 30. The solid training program is praised for bringing non-majors up to the level of majors. Moon, who participated in the interview, majored in journalism and broadcasting. He said, "I joined Able School to quickly reduce the gap with majors. I met talented friends at Able School, won awards in major competitions, and laid the foundation for AI development."

They participated in the Ministry of Employment and Labor hackathon based on what they learned at Able School. Inspired by the drama 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo,' they developed a 'Bidirectional Emotion Learning Platform for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder' and won the grand prize. This was the result of daily study and skill-building since July. They also visited child development centers to hear firsthand voices from the field.

Seo explained, "It started from a scene where Woo Young-woo, who has autism spectrum disorder, learns emotions through her father's photos. We visited child development centers to investigate what education is effective for people with autism spectrum disorder, and they said emotion learning through facial expressions is effective. They also advised that since the individual is most interested in themselves, using self-modeling techniques to learn emotions through their own photos would be more effective. Ultimately, we decided on the theme of a bidirectional learning platform that learns emotions through the individual's photos and generates deepfake models."

The significance of Mentors’ award is even greater because all members are trainees from the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region. Most development training is provided mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, limiting participation opportunities for students from other regions. There is also a large quality gap in education between regions. KT provides a hybrid online-offline education platform through Able School and offline classrooms using metropolitan offices in Daejeon, Gwangju, Busan, Daegu, etc., so that high-quality education is accessible anywhere. Although classes are online, it is not a so-called 'code copy-paste' style education; actual work is reviewed by experts, resulting in high satisfaction.

Seo said, "Most boot camps are centered in the metropolitan area, making it difficult to attend while going to school, and after graduation, you have to find a place to live in Seoul, so participation is hard. Able School offers the entire curriculum online, so you can receive equally high-level education even in the regions. I previously completed government AI training, where the instructor was excellent but the class was one-way, just watching the instructor type code and following along. Able School teaches the direction of code writing and has a system to check if students are doing well, so skills improved significantly."

By taking Able School’s practical training, they gained not only award achievements but also confidence in their career paths. They dream of becoming developers who create software that positively impacts the quality of life for vulnerable groups.

Moon said, "Six months ago, I was ignorant about machine learning and deep learning, but now I have won awards in competitions inside and outside school. When I showed the app developed through the hackathon to the child development center, I received thanks for making a good app for the children. I want to continue creating software that reduces the technology gap."

Lee said, "All team members dreamed of becoming developers through Able School. If there are Abler candidates considering enrollment in the future, I say don’t hesitate."