The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 19th that it will recruit corporations to take part in the "smart manufacturing specialist workforce development project" to address labor shortages on factory floors.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) has supplied about 38,000 smart factories to promote digital transformation and boost productivity for small and midsize corporations. However, on the ground, corporations are facing labor shortages due not only to a lack of specialists but also to the burden of expense. To resolve this, a supplementary budget project was newly created this year.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to select about 480 corporations as leaders in smart manufacturing by comprehensively evaluating ◇ smart manufacturing capabilities ◇ job attractiveness ◇ potential for employment linkage, and more. Selected corporations will be assigned specialist interns, and part of the personnel costs needed during the internship period will be subsidized.
Seven project teams dedicated to running training, matching specialists, and managing internships will also be selected separately. The selected project teams will recruit trainees by region and run the training programs.
Kwon Sun-jae, director-general for regional corporate policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), said, "With a smart manufacturing specialist workforce development system that links training, matching, and hiring, we will cultivate and supply specialists in a timely manner," and added, "We will support efforts to ease labor shortages in small and midsize manufacturing and provide quality jobs to job seekers, including young people."