14 software (SW)-related organizations including Korea Software Industry Association have suggested that it is necessary to nurture 1 million software talents for the digital transformation.
At the '1st K-New Deal Unicorn Forum' held at the Seoul Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the 26th, co-hosted by the Democratic Party's K New Deal Headquarters and the National Assembly Startup Support Center Unicorn Farm, Jun-hee Cho, President of the Korea Software Industry Association, said, "The government expected shortage of the number of SW workers would be 350,000 by 2025. We expect it to be way more insufficient, since data that was used for calculations are from the past.” in order to highlight that they need to nurture 1 million SW talents.
President Cho presented 7 talent training plans with 14 organizations in two areas, 'software education for all people' and 'nurture demand-oriented software talent'.
The 14 organizations demanded increased the number of hours of education in elementary, middle and high schools, the expansion of information teachers, the reorganization of the existing specialized high schools, the expansion of the university's SW-related quota, and the reorganization of digital-oriented departments.
It also said that it is necessary to expand industrial technical personnel related to military service personnel, expand company-led education, nurture career discontinuity and retirees as digital new deal talents, and improve talent concentration and mismatching (regional balance).
President Cho said, “The speed of the great digital transformation will determine the national competitiveness. SW is the center of the digital transformation, and the key is SW manpower, and the development of talent will determine the speed of the digital transformation.”
Democratic Party presidential candidate Jae-myung Lee participated in the video and said, “Digital transformation is a new opportunity for us. We will focus our efforts on nurturing digital talent to take advantage of opportunities.”
Candidate Lee said, “The digital transformation may be a crisis, but we must not forget that crisis is another word for opportunity. We call it ability when we break through a crisis into an opportunity and find a possibility.”
He continued, “Leading countries are adopting digital transformation. Korea has laid the foundation for building a digital powerhouse, such as Dae-jung Kim’s administration working on high-speed internet network, the Participatory Government’s e-government, and the Jae-in Moon administration’s data dam.”
Candidate Lee said, “For digital transformation, we have made a pledge to build physical, institutional, and human infrastructure, and to expand digital industry, technology, and global territory. We will invest 30 trillion KRW in infrastructure construction in the early days of our administration, create more than 2 million jobs, invest in cutting-edge technology, and promote rationalization of regulations.”
Candidate Lee emphasized that “Digital talents should be able to work in industrial fields and find as many talents as possible. We will do our best to nurture talents by establishing a digital competency training center in each region.”
He added that there is a need for a 'righteous transition' in which the benefits of digital transformation can be applied equally to all, not just a few.
In the discussion that followed, Jin-guk Park, president of the Korea Information Technology Service Industry Association, said, “It is good to come up with a growth strategy according to the digital transformation, but more important is execution. A change in the government organization is necessary to have a strong promotion system.”
Byung-han Yoo, president of the Korea Software Property – Right Council, said, “One million software talents are not enough.” He emphasized, “We need a policy for all people to become digital experts without thinking of digital transformation as a special field.”
Jae-moon Park, secretary general of the Korea Federation of ICT Organizations, said, “We have to take into account the decrease in the number of people took CSAT is about 400,000 this year, so there would be less talent pool. Before we request nurturing talents, we have to approach with different strategy as past.”
By Staff Reporter Ho-cheon An (hcan@etnews.com)