Posco recently held a ceremony for the declaration of becoming a life-long learning company after deciding to introduce a 'Life-Long Learning System' to enhance corporate competitiveness and improve the quality of employees' lives with harmony in work, relaxation and learning.

In the ceremony — held as a video conference connecting business places including Pohang, Kwangyang, Seoul and Beijing — the CEO, Ku-Taek Lee, announced that "to strengthen the abilities of human resources and to form a corporate culture that pursues continuous innovation, Posco has decided to introduce a life-long learning system. Posco will support its employees in becoming globally competitive steel specialists."

For the life-long learning system, Posco has designated five to ten working days a year as life-long learning days, with a consideration of divisional human resource status and the needs of employees. Employees will be able to participate in these life-long learning programs for improvement of competency or for self-development. To this end, Posco will implement a variety of infrastructures for supporting the learning of employees, such as lecturers and learning facilities.

The learning programs comprise: 1) the liberal arts, such as business etiquette, hobbies, reading and discussion, exhibitions and cultural experiences; 2) a corporate values sharing category such as 6 SIGMA, change management and the cultivation of ethical awareness; and 3) a competency improvement category, such as the acquisition of certificates and troubleshooting workshops.

In adopting the 40-hour work week in September last year, labor and management parties agreed to the introduction of a life-long learning system. Then, the basic plan for a life-long learning system was established through joint research with the Management Paradigm Center of Kyunghee University. A pilot program has been operating in five plants, including Pohang and Kwangyang Works, since January of this year.

Using this declaration as a springboard for the earlier establishment and effective operation of the life-long learning system, Posco plans to expand the life-long learning system throughout the company starting in April, in cooperation with the Presidential Commission on People-centered Competitiveness Initiatives, the New Paradigm Center and the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training.

Unlike other companies that have started the development of practical programs after the declaration of becoming a life-long learning company, Posco researched the matter and established the basic directions for the life-long learning system, before declaring itself as a life-long learning company. Thus, it is estimated that Posco will successfully settle into a life-long learning system earlier.

Moreover, the declaration of Posco as a life-long learning company is a public announcement about the corporate will to cultivate intelligent employees who will lead growth and innovation in the 21st century, and to help them to find a sense of fulfillment in the workplace. Posco's case will be the momentum for other companies to be interested, and to participate, in the exciting paradigm of "life-long learning".

Meanwhile, after reading the declaration of becoming a life-long learning company, CEO Ku-Taek Lee developed an agreement with Mun Guk-Hyeon, the chairman of the Presidential Commission on People-centered Competitiveness Initiatives, which specifies that 'both parties will cooperate for the expansion of a new paradigm that converts the workplace to a life-long learning place."