To Cope with Manpower Shortage
SK On will set up its own educational platform to nurture battery experts.
A subsidiary of SK Innovation, the company is engaged in production and R&D of electric vehicle batteries, energy storage systems (ESSs) and the Battery as a Service (BaaS) business.
The advent of the electrification era is accelerating the growth of the battery industry. The problem is a shortage of excellent human resources. According to the Korea Battery Industry Association, Corporate Korea had a shortage of 1,013 research and design experts with a master’s and doctoral degree in 2020.
The Korean battery industry’s manpower shortage rate stood at about 13 percent in 2020, which is far more serious than the average manpower shortage of about 4 percent of Korea’s four promising new industries -- digital healthcare, smart/eco-friendly ships, aerial drones and intelligent robots -- and the 2 percent of Korea’s main industries.
The Korean government is also keenly aware of the seriousness of the manpower shortage in the battery industry. In 2021, the government announced the 2030 secondary battery industry development strategy, which aims to train more than 1,100 secondary battery experts annually by fostering experts with a master’s and doctoral degree in design and advanced analysis and offering education to employees to help them solve their technical difficulties.
The three major Korean battery makers (LG Energy Solution, SK On, and Samsung SDI) are also building their own platforms and accelerating the nurturing of professional human resources through cooperation with external partners. In 2021, LG Energy Solution signed an agreement with Korea University to establish a battery department. SK On partners with Sungkyunkwan University and the UNIST and Samsung SDI with Seoul National University, POSTECH, the KAIST, and Hanyang University.