POSCO is accepting applicants for the fourth round, offering free education courses on artificial intelligence, big data, and IoT for job seekers as well as the public.

Last year, POSCO along with Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTEC) created education programs on AI, big data, and IoT in the form of basic online and advanced offline courses. The program comes as part of the company’s social contribution efforts offered free of charge to encourage these skills and broaden job opportunities.

Application for basic online courses are available for everyone until September 2 through POSTEC website. Upon completion of basic online courses, advanced offline courses are open to selected individuals for 10 weeks from September 3 through October 24 at POSTEC. To promote the offline program that provides intensive training in a short period of time, POSCO plans to actively promote these efforts in domestic universities and online communities for job seekers.

The four-month program is designed and carried out by POSTEC professors while equipment expenses are provided by POSCO. Basic online courses started out with six in the first round expanded to 13 this year. The first round of courses have ended on September 2. Over 6,000 students have completed basic knowledge on AI, machine learning, computational intelligence and more. POSTEC plans to take previous feedback into account to further enhance the quality of the courses.

The online programs on AI, big data and IoT were completed by 26,494 students thus far. The advanced offline courses completed by 49 students have successfully entered the domestic workforce  such as interns at POSTEC, regular employees at LG CNS, Kakao, and SK Innovation. POSCO plans to further advance the courses such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and computer vision for students interested in even more specialized fields.

Meanwhile, Jeong-Woo Choi, who was elected as the 9th CEO of POSCO on July 27, presented ‘With POSCO(Building a better future together as corporate citizens)’ as a new vision at the inauguration ceremony, expressing his aspirations to create a better society through contribution. This program represents POSCO’s major social contribution activity, aimed at increasing job opportunities while enriching the country’s competency in the fourth industrial revolution.

The CSR Report 2017 published by POSCO-China in June 2018 affirms the 5-star rating, the highest level of achievement earned from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Expert Committee on June 22. This marks POSCO’s second time around in securing a perfect evaluation score since 2011 when POSCO-China first issued the CSR Report in China.

Cover of POSCO-China’s CSR Report 2017

The report presenting two different elements, the management(sustainable development) and the implementation(social responsibility), conveys POSCO’s philosophy, notions of social responsibility, and efforts to reinforce communications not only with customers but to cultivate a congenial relationship with society at large. 

POSCO-China details the sustainable development activities during the past year from the perspective of management as well as demonstration. The beginning of the report displays data analysis regarding the practices of social responsibilities based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of which companies around the world strive to achieve. To commemorate POSCO’s 50th anniversary, the report congruously details the history and achievements of CSR at POSCO during this half-century span. 

Before the publication of CSR Report each year, POSCO-China conducts online surveys and votes on related issues to enhance transparency. Owing to this effort, POSCO was ranked number 7 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the ‘Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility Development Index’ in 2017.

As POSCO-China’s recognition is preeminent in the CSR Report, POSCO was able to consolidate its brand image as a ‘responsible management company’  that advances alongside China. This branding will be actively used not only for government relations but also for efforts in marketing.