Hankyung.com: A person who is sincere about "creating jobs" and how he signed an agreement with a city in the U.S.

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Dec 29, 2023, 08:00 ET

Aims to foster teenagers, young people, middle-aged people, and people with disabilities into lifelong professionals

Developed a platform to "accompany the vulnerable" using metaverse

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This is an Interview with Baek Seong-wook, President of Knowledge Fun On by reporter Choi Su-jin from Hankyung.com:

"I want to build a variety of services so that no one will have difficulty getting a job in the future," said CEO Baek Sung-wook (photo), whom we met at the KFO Knowledge Fun On in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, on the 14th. When he founded the company in 2009, he aimed to empower teenagers, young people, middle-aged people, and people with disabilities to become lifelong professionals through vocational training so that they could take charge of their lives and the lives of their families.

Photo: https://img.hankyung.com/pdsdata/pr.hankyung.com/uploads/2023/12/kfo.jpg

In recognition of his contributions, he has received awards from four organizations, including awards from the Minister of Employment and Labor and the Mayor of Seoul this year. The opportunity came when his company was selected as an excellent company for job creation. President Baek smiled while introducing the plaques displayed in his office, saying, "I've been lucky enough to receive many awards this year."

This year is particularly meaningful to President Baek. This is because he signed an MOU with the City of Fullerton, California, USA, to establish an employment platform. He said the MOU was made possible because of the city's concern about the need for quality labor in their city.

The city of Fullerton is home to many Korean-Americans, so much so that the first Korean mayor was elected. There is a high demand for Korean labor, especially among local companies that have paid attention to the diligence of Koreans. In response, President Baek aims to build a platform to provide jobs for Korean-Americans in the city and to create an environment where companies can hire global talent.

"Koreans are known for being conscientious compared to other ethnic groups in the city," President Baek said. "We will provide them with project-based jobs provided by hidden champions certified by the Hi-seoul Biz Company Association to increase confidence in jobs."

President Baek is also interested in creating jobs for the people with disabilities. In addition, in 2017, he developed an "online brand manager" job for the creation of jobs for people with disabilities, and the company was finally selected as an organization to carry out a public-private partnership project for jobs for young people organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

In particular, the "edutech platform to accompany the vulnerable" that he recently created, which is aimed at providing jobs online in a contact-free way, was finally selected for the Seoul Metropolitan Government's demonstration support project. The key is to provide substantial jobs for people with disabilities through metaverse technology.

President Baek believes that jobs for people with disabilities are currently limited to simple labor. He said that the reality is that they cannot even do simple work because of communication problems between non-disabled people and disabled people. This is due to prejudice and a lack of understanding of disability, despite the demand for employment of people with disabilities.

"Even in the U.S., the best job for people with disabilities was 'barista' because they couldn't find many jobs and none of them were digital jobs," he said, and explained, "we created an online brand manager for people with disabilities, so people with disabilities could work at home as long as they had PCs. It's not that there are no people to work, but that prejudice against disability is hindering job creation."

This is why he developed and patented the edutech platform to accompany the vulnerable. The platform he created breaks down the types of disabilities - visual, hearing, and developmental - and lists what they can actually do.

He also plans to add a system to address work retraining, employment, and so on on the platform so that they can be promoted and get higher salaries based on their abilities. In particular, he used metaverse technology on the platform and tried to solve the communication problem between non-disabled and disabled people by using this space.

President Baek said, "The metaverse world is a space that transcends disability. It is a space without disability. Because no one can't see whether I am disabled or not." He stressed, "This is one of the reasons why I emphasize new technology."

He continued, "I want to increase opportunities for disabled and non-disabled people to work together, drink coffee and communicate with each other in the metaverse," adding, "This can be summed up as real-life-like jobs through the metaverse."

SOURCE Hankyung.com