Seven courses for SMEs and graduate students
| Standardization practical training, international conference field training
| Comprehensive support operation including aftercare

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 25th that it will be establishing a new 'Emerging Global Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards Specialist Training Course' this year to foster standardization capabilities for small and medium-sized enterprise personnel who will drive innovative growth in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and that training will begin in earnest in July.

The Ministry of Science and ICT, through the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), has completed the development of curricula and teaching materials for four basic ICT international standard courses (IoT, cloud computing, big data/AI, and mobile communication international standardization courses) and three practical courses (① official standardization (ITU, JTC 1) practical course, ② factual standardization (3GPP, IEEE, IETF, W3C, oneM2M, OCF) practical course, and ③ international standardization strategy course). The TTA Academy is recruiting students until July 3.

This training will be taught by 44 experts active in international standardization organizations, and will provide a variety of specialized knowledge, from standardization theory to analysis of standardization development cases, to small and medium-sized enterprise R&D organizations and graduate students.

ICT standards are a crucial key to enhancing the global competitiveness of corporate technologies and enabling them to dominate global markets. For Korea, with its high dependence on trade, it is crucial to secure global technological competitiveness through the efficient use of standards.

Thanks to the government's support for the development of information and communications technology standards and international standardization activities over the past 30 years, Korea ranked third globally in the number of national contributions submitted to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2018, following China and the United States. However, with research institutes, universities, and large corporations primarily involved, participation by SMEs in standardization remains somewhat limited. In 2018, SME experts accounted for only 13%, or 34 out of 261 seats, in major standards organizations.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Telecommunications and Telecommunications Business Administration (TTA) have established a new ICT standardization specialist training program to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to quickly secure standardization human resources.

The Ministry of Science and ICT will provide opportunities for field training at international standardization conferences with international standardization experts designated as mentors to outstanding trainees to accumulate practical experience. The Ministry will also do its best to provide ongoing aftercare, including additional customized training and support for participation in international standardization conferences, so that trainees can grow into standards experts and work in the field of standardization.

Yong Hong-taek, Director General of Information and Communication Industry Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “In order to secure global technological competitiveness in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is important to foster small and medium-sized standardization powerhouses,” and added, “We will actively support the training of new standards personnel so that they can follow in the footsteps of Korean ICT standards experts and play a leading role in the international standardization field.”