Meet the Samsung Employees Who Became WorldSkills Champions – Samsung Global Newsroom

The world’s biggest skills championship is back – and Samsung Electronics has taken its place as the general presenter of the event. The 2022 special edition of the WorldSkills competition marked the 46th time the event has taken place and the fifth time Samsung has participated as general presenter of the event. While the event was canceled last year due to the pandemic, this year more than 1,000 competitors from 58 countries will take part in the competition, which will take place in 15 countries from September to November.

At this year’s event, competitors battled for global recognition in 61 areas, including cloud computing, cybersecurity, mechatronics, mobile robotics and optoelectronic technology. In South Korea, the eight skills competitions were held at KINTEX, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, from October 12-17.

Fifty-one competitors represented South Korea across 46 skills – and 22 of them are representatives from Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung Heavy Industries. They competed in 17 skills as representatives of their country and company.

A history of the WorldSkills competition and its impact

The WorldSkills Competition began in 1950 as a place to share the latest technology, exchange information and build relationships among the world’s skilled young talents. In pursuit of these goals, the WorldSkills competition has been held periodically in member countries to research, develop and advance new training methods and systems of professional training within a rapidly changing industry.

As this industry evolves, so does the WorldSkills competition. Compared to 2007, 14 new skills were added in the areas of edge computing and convergence technologies, such as cloud computing, mobile application development and cybersecurity. The number of member countries has also increased from 49 in 2007 to 85 in 2022.

How Samsung is sponsoring the next generation of innovators

At the heart of Samsung’s business philosophy is a focus on technology, an idea that manufacturing and skilled talent are the foundation for future growth. In line with this vision, Samsung has been nurturing countless talented young professionals by sponsoring WorldSkills Competitions and Korea National Skills Competitions for 16 years.

In December 2006, Samsung Electronics signed the Skills Promotion Agreement with the Ministry of Labor. Samsung has also sponsored the National Skills Competition and Team Korea for WorldSkills Competitions since 2007. In addition, among all qualified specialists who have participated in the National Skills Competition, Samsung has hired about 100 every year since 2007. Young professionals hired by Samsung participated in the WorldSkills Competition as national representatives and have won a total of 28 gold medals, 16 silver medals and 8 bronze medals to date.

Samsung Electronics has decided to sponsor the special edition WorldSkills Competition 2022 with a contribution of 1.5 million euros in recognition of all the competitors who trained during the pandemic, which caused the competition to be postponed by one year. year. This year is particularly significant for Samsung as Heedong Lee, an employee of Samsung’s Mobile eXperience Business division, will join the competition as a WorldSkills Ambassador and Asia-Pacific representative for the WorldSkills Champions Trust. Lee previously won gold in CNC milling at WorldSkills São Paolo 2015.

Spotlight on National Representative Donggeun Lee

Donggeun Lee (24), a silver medalist of Computer Network System Administrations at the Korea National Skills Competition in 2015, competed in Cloud Computing at this special edition of the 2022 WorldSkills Competition. After joining Samsung, Lee s Trained as National Representative Candidate in Computer Network Systems Administration for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017. In 2020, he fulfilled his dream of joining Team Korea and competing in WorldSkills Shanghai 2021. However, the competition was delayed by a year due to the pandemic. With an additional year of preparation under his belt, Lee will now compete in the special edition WorldSkills Competition 2022.

“I’m mesmerized by cloud computing because it’s the ultimate integration of advanced technologies with infinite scope,” Lee said. Surprisingly, he had no information about the skill competition when he first entered Yangyoung Digital High School. He heard about the WorldSkills competition through his teacher and since then he started training to try to win the gold medal in the WorldSkills competition. “The WorldSkills Competition has been my dream for a long time,” said Lee. “I did my best to make that dream come true, and now I’m ready to face it head-on.”

While preparing for this year’s contest, Lee stressed that it was very important to keep up to date with the latest trends. “I would like to become the person who not only cares about the latest trends, but also creates and leads them,” Lee said of her career after this competition.

WorldSkills champions unleash their full potential at Samsung

Samsung has a history of nurturing WorldSkills champions, frequently recruiting skilled young professionals from Korea’s national skills competitions. Learn more about the stories of Samsung employees who have gone beyond their WorldSkills achievements and are now unleashing their skills in their fields.