Educating the young generation who will lead the future with the necessary digital skills is a common global challenge. In response to this, Samsung Electronics has consistently provided a solid foundation of intermediate education, ensuring equal digital learning opportunities without regional limitations for both middle and high school students worldwide.

Samsung’s commitment to nurturing the young generation with creative and comprehensive problem-solving skills to lead the future can be observed in its social contribution programs. In South Korea, Samsung has been providing digital education through ‘Junior SW Academy’, while ‘Samsung Innovation Campus’ collaborates with overseas schools to offer free AI and IoT classes for middle and high school students. These initiatives support a diverse array of students, including those from underrepresented groups, in cultivating their digital skills.

Let’s explore Samsung’s education for international students learning intermediate digital skills and listen to the stories of participating students.

Empowering dreams in South Korea

In the city of Gwangyang, South Korea, Yonggang Middle School is conducting ‘Junior SW Academy,’ a CSR program for software education launched in 2013. The program provides AI education and practical experiences tailored to the students, in addition to training and digital educational content for the teachers in charge.

Kim Min-Jae, a software honors student shared, “Junior SW Academy is a fun program that allowed me to solidify my coding passion, especially for music.”

Additionally, Woo Jung-hoon, teacher of Kim Min-Jae claimed that students were able to increase their interest in Coding and AI. “The Academy revolutionized our classroom environment with laptops replacing PCs, richer teaching materials, and most importantly, increased student interest and enthusiasm. I plan to personally seek out various AI-related lectures to incorporate new content into my classes.”

Widening horizons in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan middle school student Stavr Plaksin participated in Samsung Innovation Campus, Samsung’s global ICT education program, providing diverse IT courses from programming to AI, in various education environments.

Stavr claimed that he began to take an interest in programming – especially for C language, and shared how he discovered the Samsung Innovation Campus while searching for ways to learn with his father. He explained, “I liked the learning process at Samsung Innovation Campus. I became proficient in Java and Android Studio, learning how to create my own applications. During the classes, we even created a mobile game as a team project, and personally coding it was the most rewarding aspect.”

In addition to in-class courses, Samsung Innovation Campus in Kazakhstan organizes hackathons to further develop students’ digital skills. In the first hackathon held in 2023, over 200 middle and high school students participated and expanded their understanding of new technologies like AI, big data, and neural networks. They honed their intermediate digital skills through lectures and interactive courses led by IT professionals.

The participants developed a total of 46 interesting projects in the ‘Application and Program’ and ‘Smart Device’ categories. Winning teams received not only monetary rewards but also LinkedIn annual course vouchers. One of the winning students shared, “I am thankful for all the opportunities and experiences gained through the hackathon and Samsung Innovation Campus.”

Cultivating Vietnam’s next digital specialists

In Vietnam, Samsung implemented the 2023 Technology Talent Development Project via Samsung Innovation Campus, which provided intermediate digital skills development for more than 3,200 middle and high school students nationwide.

The Technology Talent Development Project was launched to nurture future talent in Vietnam by developing high-tech capabilities. The curriculum spans IoT, AI, Big Data, and Coding & Programming, complemented by Career Skills sessions, preparing students for a high-tech future. Implemented in 33 middle and high schools across the country, the program provides opportunities for training and professional development on an intermediate basis.

One participant said, “Samsung understands that theory must be paired with practice. In addition to lectures on each topic, we were also supported with a standard practice environment, a memory which I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”

Also in 2023, a new competition was launched to build a healthy playground for students to fully demonstrate their knowledge and skills gained from the program – Robocon.

Samsung Innovation Campus stands as an educational program that plays a pivotal role in narrowing the digital divide in Vietnam, garnering positive reception from both Vietnamese educational institutions and government departments.

Tran Van Dat, Acting Director of Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training, praised Samsung Innovation Campus as “one of the most practical and effective programs. The aim is to integrate this initiative annually, fostering a healthy space for students to exhibit their expertise.”

As today’s youth are set to lead the future in the sector of technology, classrooms need to create the right conditions for students to access modern tools and training in AI. Through Samsung’s educational programs focused on growing the global students’ intermediate digital skills, we hope to empower the youth by increasing their access to and familiarity with new technologies, enabling them to emerge as leaders in the field of technology.

Reference

• Samsung Junior SW Academy website, Junior SW Academy, a friendly guide for self-paced learning
• Samsung Electronics Newsroom (Kazakhstan), Samsung провела хакатон Samsung Innovation Campus c призовым фондом более 10 млн тенге
• Samsung Electronics Newsroom (Kazakhstan), Samsung открывает летнюю школу программирования
• Samsung Electronics Newsroom (Vietnam), Samsung Việt Nam Tổng Kết Dự Án Phát Triển Nhân Tài Công Nghệ Samsung Innovation Campus 2022-2023