Graduates of Samsung Software Academy For Youth (SSAFY) ― Eum Young-hyun, from left, Lee Ju-ho and Kim Dong-hwi ― poses in this photo provided by the company July 19. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

By Baek Byung-yeul

Logo for Samsung Electronics / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics' efforts to foster local digital technology experts and entrepreneurs seem to be working, as graduates of the tech giant's software academy are setting up startups and establishing a new base for the country's digital industry, the company said Friday.

Samsung said most of the graduates of its corporate social responsibility program Samsung Software Academy For Youth (SSAFY) aim for getting a job, but there are some who go on to found their own businesses.

In 2018, the company kicked off the SSAFY as part of its efforts to expand the number of experts in the nation's digital technology sector.

Lee Ju-ho, who was in the first batch of graduates of the SSAFY program, entered the academy to find his career path in the software sector after seeing a notice that Samsung would offer the software education program for free.

He decided to start his own business during the graduation presentation of the SSAFY, in which teams compete against each other after completing 12 months of training. Lee and his team won the grand prize with their assignment that combined software and hardware technologies based on big data and artificial intelligence (AI) they studied at the academy.

After graduating, Lee launched a drone-related startup with his university colleagues and supplied autonomous drones that disperse pesticides in rice paddies for the Rural Development Administration.

"At that time, I was amazed that products I made by devoting myself for three to four months were recognized for their value of tens of millions of won," Lee said.

He is now on his second challenge, as he recently became chief technology officer of a local startup providing a subscription service for various products such as nutritional supplements, water purifiers and cars.

Eum Young-hyun, who was in the second graduating class of the SSAFY, decided to start a board game development company after building up his software skills at the academy.

He started his first board game service ambitiously but it was not well-received by consumers. But, the second service was successful as he received various advice including legal counseling from a SSAFY instructor.

"The process of getting advice was like a golden reinforcement class to me," he said. "The second season could develop further because I was not alone."

Kim Dong-hwi got an opportunity to be in charge of renewing the website of a university hospital's laboratory just before completing the SSAFY's third run of the program.

The website hosts hundreds of research papers and Kim divided categories into keywords and added various search functions.

He said the project was successful according to positive feedback he received from the lab. Thanks to the better responses than expected, he decided to go one step further and co-founded Webon, a startup that develops websites and apps.

As seen in these three cases, Samsung's software training program has been having positive impacts in the local digital technology industry, helping its graduates not only find jobs at prominent IT companies nationwide but also start their own businesses.