Samsung chief travels to France to encourage young talents

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong traveled to France to attend the closing ceremony of WorldSkills Lyon 2024, the world’s largest skill championship, in a bid to show support to young talents, the company said Wednesday.

Presenting the medals and meeting with Korean competitors at the closing ceremony on Sunday, Lee reiterated the company's commitment to helping youth in their vocational training.

"The sweat of the young talents is the foundation of South Korea, a technology powerhouse. I will spare no effort to make sure young people can become technicians and be respected even without going to college," Lee said at the ceremony, held in Groupama Stadium in Lyon, France.

Samsung has been a WorldSkills Global Partner since 2007, and has been sponsoring the biennial event as the headline supporter since 2013.

At the ceremony, the Samsung chief presented the medals for Kim Ji-han and Shin Joon-ho, who won silver in the Mechatronics competition.

In this year's competition, South Korea ranked No. 2, winning 10 gold, 13 silver and 9 bronze medals, and 11 excellence awards in 43 of the 49 competitions it took part in. Skill areas include CNC milling, additive manufacturing, welding, industrial control, mobile robotics, robot system integration and beauty therapy.

Lee's interest in vocational training for the youth goes back to 2006, when he visited a company in Japan. There, he learned how a large majority of the experienced workers in the company's core parts manufacturing process won awards in international and local skills competitions, and decided to support these skills competitions to foster talents in Korea.

This year marks Lee's third participation in the international competition, after WorldSkills Calgary in Canada in 2009 and WorldSkills Special Edition held in Goyang, Korea in 2022.

During his trip in Europe, Lee also traveled to Poland to visit the company's production and research facilities, and encourage the workers there.

Staying in Poland from Monday to Wednesday, Lee visited the Samsung Experience Store in the country’s biggest shopping center Westfield Arkadia in Warsaw, and discussed local business strategies for smartphones, TVs and vacuum cleaners. He also stopped by MediaMarkt, a consumer electronics chain.

Samsung tapped into Poland in 1990 and currently has a production headquarters in Wronki, and a sales headquarters and a research center in Warsaw.