[Edaily Reporter SOYEON KIM ] LGELECTRONICS announced on the 24th that it held the 10th graduation ceremony on the 22nd (local time) at the “LG-KOICA Hope Vocational Training School” located in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. LGELECTRONICS has been providing free vocational training in Ethiopia—the only African country to have sent ground troops to the Korean War—for 10 years. Going beyond vocational training, the company also provides support for employment and entrepreneurship to help Ethiopian youth achieve economic self-sufficiency.

Key figures, including Jeong Kang, South Korean Ambassador to Ethiopia; Teshale Berecha, Deputy Minister of Labor and Technical Education of Ethiopia; and Yoon Dae-sik, Executive Vice President of External Relations at LGELECTRONICS, attended the graduation ceremony to congratulate the graduates.

The LG-KOICA Hope Vocational Training School is a technical education institution established by LG Corp. in collaboration with KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) and the Ethiopian government, and operated by LGELECTRONICS and the international development NGO World Together. It opened in 2014 as a token of gratitude to Ethiopia for its participation in the Korean War on behalf of South Korea. Each year, students are selected through written exams and interviews, and the school provides specialized vocational training in electrical and electronic engineering and IT free of charge. To ensure students can focus on their studies, the school also provides lunch and a shuttle bus service.

Including this year’s 68 graduates, the cumulative number of graduates from the LG-KOICA Hope Vocational Training School has risen to 679. The employment and entrepreneurship rate among LG-KOICA graduates is 100 percent. All graduates have secured jobs at IT companies or started their own businesses using the skills they acquired.

LGELECTRONICS offers top graduates internship opportunities with the potential for full-time employment at LGELECTRONICS’ Middle East and Africa Service Corporation, and provides students interested in starting their own businesses with practical training and mentoring in areas such as law, marketing, and business management through the school’s Entrepreneurship Support Center.

In recognition of these achievements, the LG Corp.-KOICA Hope Vocational Training School was highlighted as an exemplary case of South Korea’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) at the Group of Seven (G7) Summit held in Evian, France, last June. Previously, in 2020, it was also selected by the Ethiopian government as a model vocational training school.

This year’s graduates included twin siblings who are the grandchildren of Temam Abdul Ali, a Korean War veteran. After receiving specialized training in IT and networking, they are preparing for new challenges, aiming to become a network engineer and an IT entrepreneur, respectively.

Abenezer Tewolde, a representative of the graduates, said, “I am grateful to LG Corp. for providing us with diverse learning opportunities,” adding, “Based on the electronics skills and expertise I learned at the Hope Vocational Training School, I will pursue my dream of becoming an engineer.”

Yoon Dae-sik, Executive Vice President of External Relations at LGELECTRONICS, said, “As we have been providing Ethiopian youth with opportunities for self-reliance through the LG-KOICA Hope Vocational Training School and have been reaping meaningful results for the past 10 years, we will continue to strive to ensure that young people around the world can nurture their dreams and achieve healthy self-reliance.”