On October 15, OECD and the Ministry of Employment and Labor co-hosted a conference on ‘Employment and Skills Strategies’ in Korea. At the conference, POSCO announced a report on its management result and the best practice cases of POSCO’s National Human Resource Development (HRD) Business, under the title of ‘Mutual Growth Through Talents Cultivation for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)’. As POSCO continues its history of being nominated as the Best Consortium Education Institution and the chair of the Council for Shared Growth Human Resources Training for seven consecutive years, we would like to introduce you today about what POSCO is offering for the National HRD Consortium Business.
National Human Resource Development (HRD) Consortium Business
As a crucial company that has been influencing the national economy since the 1960s, POSCO has been conducting its social responsibility by responding to the government’ request on Korea’s human resource development and SME cultivation with HRD Consortium department starting from 2005. The National HRD Consortium Business is a platform that major companies with excellent education infrastructure supply free trainings for employees of SMEs that are relatively short in learning opportunities. As an exchange, the government provides partial expenses to the major companies that operate the National HRD Consortium Business. With outstanding education content, the latest facilities and the 40 years of know-how, POSCO has been leading the nationwide consortium business.
Training Curriculum: From Recruitment to Retirement
Currently, POSCO is providing total 130 courses under the categories of technology, safety, IT, and ethics. Customized for each trainee companies, the courses provide a wide range of lectures from technical education for newcomers to E-MBA curriculum for executive members and even ‘Green Life Design’ program for prospective retirees.
Methodical Development of Talents for SMEs
Not only are the education trainings provided but also education consulting, systematic on-the-job training, learning systematization and many more programs are offered in order to implement appropriate solutions to reinforce the trainee company’s competence. The ‘S-On-the-Job Training’ is a program that supports systematic skill development, especially the program focuses on each corporation’s own necessity at the site. Also, the learning systematization is a business model that is designed to share the practical knowledge and know-hows that only the on-site workers could possess. Through these training programs, POSCO supports its hundreds of trainees to learn essential techniques and progress autonomously as they return to their work fields.
Cultivating Professional Talents and Field Oriented Skills
The ‘Corporation University’ and ‘Work·Study Parallel System’ have been operating since their launch this year. A long-term curriculum for prospective hires or current employees, the ‘Corporation University’ curriculum even supports those without undergraduate degrees in order to nurture them as highly skilled professionals through intensive technique trainings. The ‘Work·Study Parallel System’ is a government program created in 2013 for corporations to hire job applicants as learning employees in order to systematically train the requisite talents for the corporation. After completing 1~4 years of the training programs and assessment process, the learning employees are translated into full-time employees. With current registrations from 112 people of 21 partner companies, POSCO will develop curricular that are apt to each company’s demand and initiate the curricular starting next year.
Donghoo: The Best Practice Case of POSCO’s Human Resource Development (HRD) Business
Established in 2010, Donghoo was a start-up company that provides advanced steels for energy to POSCO. To produce these steel products, craftsmanship and technical skills are essential qualities for employees. However, due to the fact that 80% of their total employees are considered novice, stabilized operation of its factory seemed somewhat difficult. In order to amend the condition, Donghoo participated in the POSCO’s HRD Consortium Business. Their newcomers started with POSCO’s 3 months program and continued to receive organized education to advance as professionals. Donghoo’s consistent endeavor on education evidently appeared as an apparent growth in their management index. In addition, the training programs have granted faith and confidence, which are much more valuable asset to Donghoo. According to Kim Yong-soo, the CEO of Donghoo, they will continue to actively utilize the curriculums of the HRD Consortium in the future for further progress.
Since POSCO is fulfilling its social responsibility and SMEs are learning beneficial trainings without any cost, the HRD Consortium is truly an innovative and productive system that seems to be critical to building national competence in the future. As the Best Practice organization of the National HRD Consortium, POSCO will continue its role as an educational infrastructure that contributes to consistent and shared growth of the 21st century.