SK pledges to create more jobs for young people

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, right, attends the Youth Hope ON ceremony along with Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum at a research center of SK hynix in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won pledged Monday to widen job opportunities for young people here during a meeting with Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum.

The meeting is part of the government's youth employment program. Under the so-called Youth Hope ON program, Chey promised to create 27,000 more jobs for young jobseekers in the next three years and garner more efforts to find fresh, next-generation growth engines. SK Group said it would focus more on expanding jobs in the battery and biomedical sectors.

SK also decided to run a special internship program for young people, with a view to educating a total of 1,200 promising young individuals for the next three years.

“SK is leading the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) management, and the group's pledge today carries great determination and ambitions,” Kim said.

SK is already running a series of corporate social responsibility (CSR) education programs. They include SK NEW SCHOOL through which SK Group has so far offered internship opportunities for more than 500 young people. For those with physical disabilities, SK is running the SIAT program, offering IT education for them to find jobs in the future.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, second from left, expresses gratitude for SK Group's efforts for job creation. On the other side is SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. Yonhap

Kim is holding a series of meetings with leaders of the nation's top conglomerates, encouraging them to join hands with the government's job creation initiative.

Earlier, the prime minister met with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo. After meeting with Chey, Kim is also set to meet with Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun soon.

The de facto leader of Samsung Group also signed a partnership with the Youth Hope ON program, and promised to create 30,000 jobs over the next three years for young people here.

Last week, the LG Group chief also shared his vision to hire more than 30,000 young people in the next three years. Ku also promised to employ 12,000 young jobseekers in the next three years.

The Youth Hope ON program is centered on expanding job training opportunities for young people nationwide. The government supports educational costs for young people, and companies that signed the program will offer vocational training opportunities for jobseekers.

After ending the event with Kim, Chey is set to embark on a two-day business trip to the United States. He will meet with management of Ford Motor Company to discuss details of their battery partnership.

SK Group is one of the nation's most ESG-active conglomerates. Earlier, Chey shared its corporate vision of investing more than 100 trillion won in next-generation eco-friendly business areas ― such as electric vehicle batteries and hydrogen. He also pledged to speed up SK's group-wide efforts to reduce carbon emissions.