A trainee of Samsung Software Academy for Youth delivers a presentation about computer software development at the academy's Seoul campus, April 8. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

By Baek Byung-yeul

Logo for Samsung Electronics / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics is continuing efforts to foster homegrown computer software developers as part of its corporate social responsibility activities by offering training courses to tech workers through Samsung Software Academy for Youth (SSAFY) since 2018.

The company recently announced that it will recruit trainees at SSAFY for the second half of 2022 from May 2 to May 16. The SSAFY will select a total of 1,150 students and start a one-year software training course on five campuses nationwide from July.

The program, which recruits trainees twice a year, steadily increased the number of trainees starting with the first 500 in December 2018. From the first half of this year's program, the number of trainees was expanded to 1,150.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, SSAFY is a corporate social responsibility program launched by Samsung to expand the domestic IT ecosystem and enhance the competitiveness of young jobseekers. Samsung decided to begin the program in August 2018 to revitalize the country's economy and create more jobs.

Jobseekers under the age of 29 with a four-year university degree or prospective graduate can apply for the program regardless of their field of study. Participants can apply to any of the five campuses: Seoul, Daejeon, Gwangju, Gumi and Busan.

SSAFY aims to foster software developers who can immediately start working at companies through intensive computer software education for a total of 1,600 hours for a year. All curriculums are free of charge, and all trainees are provided with 1 million won ($803) in educational support every month.

"The first semester consists of solidifying the foundation as a software developer by improving algorithm-based coding capabilities. The second semester is designed to strengthen trainees' practical capabilities by carrying out software projects," the company said.

The program has offered an opportunity for young jobseekers to get IT jobs at prominent companies. Samsung said the program showed an 84 percent employment rate as a total of 2,785 trainees completed the course and 2,326 of them were employed by around 700 companies.

They had jobs at major IT firms including Samsung, Naver, Kakao, Coupang, Shinsegae I&C, LG CNS and Lotte Data Communication.

To help SSAFY trainees grow into software developers, Samsung's software developers also participate in the training course as mentors. About 90 mentors will provide counselling on software learning methods, development experience and career counselling, the company said.