LG Electronics holds 10th graduation ceremony at vocational school in Ethiopia

LG Electronics announced Monday that it held the 10th graduation ceremony at the LG-KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) Hope Vocational Training School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The company has provided free vocational education in Ethiopia for 10 consecutive years. Ethiopia is the only African country to have sent ground troops to fight in the Korean War.

The ceremony, held Saturday (local time), was attended by key figures including Jung Kang, South Korea's ambassador to Ethiopia; Tsehale Berecha, Ethiopia's deputy minister of labor and skills; and Yoon Dae-sik, executive vice president for external affairs at LG Electronics.

The LG-KOICA Hope Vocational Training School opened in 2014 through a partnership among LG Group, KOICA and the Ethiopian government. LG Electronics and World Together, an international development NGO, operate the school. Students are selected each year through written exams and interviews and receive free professional training in electrical electronics and information technology. The school also provides lunch and shuttle bus service to support students' studies.

With 68 graduates this year, the school's cumulative total has reached 679. Its employment and entrepreneurship rate stands at 100 percent — every graduate has either found work at an IT company or launched a business using skills acquired at the school.

LG Electronics offers top graduates a conversion internship at its Central Africa and Middle East service subsidiary, and provides practical training and mentoring in law, marketing and project management through an on-campus startup support center for students who wish to start their own businesses.

The school's achievements earned it recognition as a model official development assistance case for South Korea at the G7 summit held in Évian, France, in June. The Ethiopian government also selected it as a model vocational training institution in 2020.

This year's graduating class included an added point of significance: twins who are grandchildren of Temam Abdul Ali, an Ethiopian veteran of the Korean War. Having completed specialized training in IT and networking, the two are now preparing to pursue careers as a network engineer and an IT entrepreneur, respectively.

Abenezer Tewelde, speaking on behalf of the graduates, said he was grateful to LG Electronics for the many learning opportunities. "I will work toward my dream of becoming an engineer, building on the electronics skills and expertise I gained at the Hope Vocational Training School," he said.

Yoon said the school has delivered meaningful results for 10 years by giving young Ethiopians the chance to become self-reliant. "We will continue working to help young people around the world nurture their dreams and build healthy, independent lives," he said.