Skills Change Lives: Meet Samsung Employees Who Became WorldSkills Champions

The world’s largest skill championship has returned — and Samsung Electronics took its place as the Overall Event Presenter. The WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition marked the 46th time the event has taken place and the fifth time Samsung has participated as an Overall Event Presenter. While the event was canceled last year due to the pandemic, this year, more than 1,000 competitors from 58 countries will participate in the competition, which will be held across 15 countries from September to November.

At this year’s event, competitors competed for world recognization across 61 skills, including Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Mechatronics, Mobile Robotics and Optoelectronic Technology. In South Korea, the eight skill competitions took place at KINTEX, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, from October 12 – 17.

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

A History of WorldSkills Competition and Its Impact

▲ The WorldSkills Competition 2022, a competition featuring skilled technicians from around the world, was held from October 12 – 17 at KINTEX, Goyang. 133 competitors from 35 countries participated in a total of eight skills, including Information Technology (IT) and plastic die engineering.

The WorldSkills Competition began in 1950 as a place to share the latest technologies, exchange information and build relationships amongst the world’s skilled young talents. In pursuit of these goals, the WorldSkills Competition was held periodically in member countries to research, develop and further advance new training methods and vocational training systems amidst a rapidly changing industry.

As this industry evolves, so too does the WorldSkills Competition. Compared to 2007, 14 new skills have been added in the areas of advanced IT and convergence technology, such as Cloud Computing, Mobile Applications Development and Cyber Security. The number of member countries has also increased from 49 in 2007 to 85 in 2022.

How Samsung Sponsors the Next Generation of Innovators

At the heart of Samsung’s business philosophy is an emphasis on technology, an idea that manufacturing and skilled talents are the foundation of driving future growth. In line with this vision, Samsung has been cultivating countless talented young professionals by sponsoring the WorldSkills Competitions and the 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 been sponsoring the National Skills Competition and Team Korea for WorldSkills Competitions since 2007. Moreover, of all the skilled specialists that have competed in the National Skills Competition, Samsung has hired approximately 100 of them each year since 2007. The young professionals hired by Samsung have competed in the WorldSkills Competition as national representatives and won a total of 28 gold medals, 16 silver medals and 8 bronze medals so far.

Samsung Electronics decided to sponsor the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition 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 a year. This year is especially significant for Samsung as Heedong Lee, an employee from Samsung’s Mobile eXperience Business Division will join the competition as the WorldSkills Ambassador and Asia-Pacific representative for the WorldSkills Champions Trust. Lee previously won the gold medal in CNC Milling at the WorldSkills São Paolo 2015.

The Spotlight on National Representative Donggeun Lee

Donggeun Lee (age 24), the silver medalist of IT Network Systems Administrations at the Korea National Skills Competition in 2015, competed in Cloud Computing at this WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition. After joining Samsung, Lee trained as the national representative candidate in IT Network Systems Administration for the WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017. In 2020, he achieved his dream of joining Team Korea and competing in the WorldSkills Shanghai 2021. However, the competition was delayed by a year due to the pandemic. With one more year of preparation under his belt, Lee will now compete in the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition.

“I’m mesmerized by cloud computing as it is the ultimate integration of advanced technologies with an infinite scope of application,” said Lee. Surprisingly, he had no information about the skill competition when he first entered Yangyoung Digital High School. He learned about the WorldSkills Competition through his teacher, and ever since, he began to receive training to try and win the gold medal at the WorldSkills Competition. “The WorldSkills Competition has been my dream for a long time,” said Lee. “I’ve been doing my best to achieve this dream, and now I’m ready to face it head-on.”

While preparing for this year’s competition, Lee emphasized that staying up-to-date on the latest trends was very important. “I’d like to become the person who not only shows interest in the latest trends but also creates and leads them,” said Lee, regarding his career after this competition.

WorldSkills Champions Unleash Their Full Potential at Samsung

Samsung has a history of fostering WorldSkills Champions, frequently hiring skilled young professionals from the National Skills Competitions in Korea. Read more about the stories of Samsung employees who went above and beyond their achievements at the WorldSkills Competition and are now unleashing their skills in their fields.