Why are Samsung, SK hynix and LG training people who do not work for them yet?

The unusual scene: companies are spending employee time on people they have not hired

Economist reported on September 25 that 29 companies including Samsung, SK, LG, Hanwha, Lotte and KT are participating in K-New Deal Academy programs reaching 4,500 young people. Companies provide two to six months of job training and practical experience.

That requires curriculum design, instructors, mentors, facilities and project operations. Not every trainee will eventually join the company that helped train them.

The rationale becomes more understandable in fast-moving sectors: the gap between what schools teach and what real jobs require can widen faster than the existing hiring market can absorb.

Samsung targets 1,000, LG 1,000, and SK hynix runs a 10-week semiconductor curriculum

Samsung launched its Youth Hope Learning Center in 2026 and said it would support 1,000 unemployed young people outside the Seoul metropolitan area across practical job tracks.

LG's Let's Grow with LG program targets 1,000 participants and combines company-specific expertise from LG Electronics, LG Chem and LG Display with hands-on AX projects. LG Display separately describes training that combines foundational capability, AI use and display-specific skills, delivered by veteran researchers.

SK hynix is currently recruiting the 10th cohort of Youth Hy-Po. Its official 10-week structure includes semiconductor fundamentals and advanced topics, business basics, training from SK hynix practitioners, VR practice, projects and a project competition.

The shift is not simply ‘more training’ — it is earlier intervention in the talent pipeline

The conventional sequence was school → application → interview → employment → internal training. Employer-designed training inserts a new layer between school and application.

Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor describes K-New Deal Academy as a program in which large companies lead the design and operation of training in their specialized fields to help young people build capability and enter the labor market.

That does not prove these programs are direct recruiting pipelines. It does show that employers are moving upstream from selecting available talent toward helping more people acquire the capabilities the market needs.

For job seekers, the curriculum may matter more than the certificate

An employer-designed curriculum is a public clue about what the company believes is missing between academic learning and practical work.

SK hynix combines technical knowledge with projects, practice and business basics. LG combines AI use with domain-specific training. The repeated message is that companies are looking for combinations that can connect knowledge to work, not isolated facts.

A more useful question than ‘will this certificate get me hired?’ is ‘what is this company willing to spend money and employee time teaching — and why?’

Employer curricula can function as a Capability Gap Map

A job posting shows what a company expects an applicant to already have. A training program shows what the company is willing to help build before employment.

Reading the two together creates a richer picture. When a capability appears repeatedly in both job requirements and employer-led training, it may indicate an area the company values but cannot easily assume the market will supply in sufficient depth.

A training curriculum alone cannot establish a company's hiring standard. It can, however, help a candidate prioritize preparation using evidence closer to actual work than a generic certification list.

For HR, the question changes: is this a sourcing problem or a capability-supply problem?

A hard-to-fill role is not always solved by adding more recruiters. If the market does not contain enough people with the required capability, sourcing intensity cannot manufacture supply.

The response set then expands: widen adjacent backgrounds, redesign requirements, train after hiring, or intervene before hiring through education, projects and industry-academic programs.

The significance of these programs is not that every company should become a school. It is that Talent Strategy can extend from 'who should we find?' to 'which capabilities need to exist in the market first?'

BANSEOG VIEW | Hiring can start before the application

Samsung, SK hynix and LG are running different programs for different purposes, and participation does not guarantee employment.

The common feature is earlier employer involvement in capability formation for people who are not yet employees.

For candidates, that creates a second evidence source alongside job postings: what companies choose to teach.

For employers, it creates a diagnostic question: is the shortage caused by search, or by the speed at which the market produces the capability you need?