April 18, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea plans to newly create some 24,000 jobs in the software sector by 2022 as the industry is a key part of the country’s push to capitalize on the fourth industrial revolution, the government said on Sept. 11.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the “track-track” blueprint to improve both quality and quantity of software jobs in the sector that covers everything from artificial intelligence to cloud computing over the next five years. 

The ministry has stressed that the revolution is radically shifting the economic landscape and noticeably changing the nature of jobs in the software sector.

Under the plan, the ministry will support 35 universities with the focus on software curriculum by next year, up from 25 this year.

The ministry will also create AI graduate schools to eventually train around 4,000 highly skilled engineers and scientists in the sector, officials said.

Some of the world’s most renowned universities, such as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have already provided graduate-level AI programs.

In order to provide a better working environment for software programmers in the sector, the government is pushing to adopt the “regulatory sandbox,” officials said.

The ministry will moreover provide various mentoring services to 150 small and medium-sized AI and virtual reality firms with growth potential.

It aims to revamp various regulatory red tape and inadequate training programs as Korea is facing a severe lack of software developers. The talent shortage has been blamed on the inability of the education system to adapt to the current market needs.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)