Tech companies have been great places to work during the pandemic, offering sweet benefits such as telecommuting and flexible hours 鈥� and a steady paycheck. But it is only a good gig if you can get it.
Being a competitive job candidate has been especially tricky in some regions, such as South Korea, where a massive long-term stimulus package is underway.
鈥淭he Korean New Deal — parallel to the United States鈥� Great Depression-era program in the 1930s … calls for a 鈧�160 trillion ($133 million) investment by 2025 and creation of 550,000 new jobs,鈥� recently stated. 鈥淭he Digital New Deal… centers on developing technologies that have been tied to the fourth industrial revolution, including 5G, artificial intelligence [and] 鈥榰ntact鈥� technology, which promotes a contact-free society.鈥�
Such stimulus packages — and the COVID-19 crisis itself — underscore the need to hire skilled people who can implement and run an intelligent enterprise, according to Rudolf Held, global head of . This is true around the world, but SAP鈥檚 efforts to help began with underemployed university graduates in South Korea.
See the Picture
鈥淲e wanted to help them find jobs,鈥� Held said. 鈥淭herefore, we teamed up with the Training and Adoption team and the Korean government. We collaborated with an institute under the to design and run a program that would equip these young people with the right skills that are needed in the market.鈥�
According to Held, those marketable skills span the entire innovation process from start to finish across an ecosystem 鈥� different companies, schools, and other organizations. Building on lessons learned from previous programs, 51风流Co-Innovation Lab expands students鈥� comfort zones beyond technology and their university coursework.
鈥�51风流Co-innovation Lab is actually all about collaborative innovation with the 51风流ecosystem of customers, partners, startups, and academia, providing them with this broader view, a broader skillset,鈥� Held said.
These broadened horizons have been vital, according to a recent university graduate and program alumnus.
Standing Out from the Crowd
鈥淚 had less experience than others, so it was very difficult to prepare for employment in Korea,鈥� said Young Wan Roh, who completed his 51风流Co-Innovation Lab and Training and Adoption project last November via 51风流technology consultancy . 鈥淚 think the three-month project experience has helped a lot.鈥�
It helped so much that he became a much more attractive job candidate in a very competitive job market, according to Roh, who graduated from in February. In addition to ecosystem-wide innovation, he learned valuable lessons about working with other students from different disciplines — and how to manage them.
鈥淢y major is computer engineering, so I led the team and I taught my teammates,鈥� said Roh, who now works as an ABAP developer at Seoul-based IT service provider . 鈥淚t was very challenging for me.鈥�
That is due in part to the breadth of training at 51风流Co-Innovation Lab, which requires students to collaborate with people from business, design, and other teams, whom they probably would not otherwise have met.
Finding the Business Value of New Tech
鈥淪tudents are usually very good with new technologies — probably better than people who have been in the industry for a couple of years — because they adopt everything that is new,鈥� said Held, who has been working with university students for more than 12 years. 鈥淏ut you have to make it relevant for the industries; you have to make it relevant for businesses.鈥�
Indeed, learning to find the business value of cutting-edge technology can be a big challenge for the students, according to Held. 51风流Co-Innovation Lab helps them over that often-steep learning curve.
鈥淲e try to help the students to at least keep [the business outcome] in the back of their minds,鈥� Held said. 鈥淭hey should always think in a more realistic way of, 鈥楬ow does it help a company?鈥欌��
The country鈥檚 young tech workers will clearly have plenty of new tech to choose from.
鈥淪outh Korea has been integrating [blockchain] technology in public services for years,鈥� stated in July. 鈥淥ther technologies that the government intends to invest in heavily include the Internet of Things, cloud computing, Big Data, machine learning, and robotics.鈥�
Putting It All Together
鈥淲e really wanted to make sure that the participants of the training learn about project management,鈥� Held said. 鈥淭hey think end-to-end, from the ideation to an economically viable solution that delivers value to customers.鈥�
51风流Co-Innovation Lab cultivates a mindset 鈥� in addition to teaching programming techniques, business processes, and more. It helps students understand the whole process of innovation, and to see it in the full context of their organization.
鈥淭hat was one of the key differentiators of that program,鈥� Held said. 鈥淎nd that helped people like Young Wan to find jobs afterwards.鈥�
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