Korea Zinc's Choi Yun-beom steps up employee training investment to build future capabilities

Korea Zinc Chairman Choi Yun-beom is accelerating talent development by steadily increasing investment in employee training and upgrading job-specific programs as part of a strategy to get ahead of rapidly shifting global business conditions.

The initiative reflects a conviction that employees who drive change are the core of corporate competitiveness. Korea Zinc plans to continuously refine its talent development framework by strengthening training in job expertise, leadership, global capabilities, AI and workplace safety.

Korea Zinc said Wednesday that total employee training hours reached 122,315 last year, nearly double the 61,538 hours logged in 2021. Average training hours per employee also rose from 40 hours to 59 hours over the same period, reaching the highest level in five years in 2025.

Average training costs per employee climbed roughly fivefold, from 281,000 won ($203) in 2021 to 1.44 million won in 2025. As investment in training and organizational culture programs expanded, both the quality and variety of programs improved alongside greater participation opportunities for employees.

The company is placing particular emphasis on tailored training that accounts for each employee's role and seniority. In partnership with Korea University Business School, Korea Zinc ran a seven-month leadership program — the Korea Zinc and Affiliates Leadership Academy — in which participants studied management theory and used action learning to develop solutions to real workplace challenges.

The company also delivered leadership training for about 300 floor supervisors and deputy supervisors at the Onsan Smelter, helping them build relationship-centered leadership, conflict management and teamwork skills.

In addition, as overseas operations expand — including Project Crucible, which involves building an integrated smelter in Clarksville, Tennessee — and exchanges with global clients and institutions grow more active, Korea Zinc is strengthening foreign-language training to sharpen employees' practical communication skills.

The company is also enhancing its own proprietary technical training curriculum to raise equipment-operation capabilities at production sites. Korea Zinc runs the KZ Equipment Academy for field engineers and technical staff to improve their proficiency in operating plant machinery.

The program pairs external specialists with in-house experts to combine theory with hands-on practice, focusing on equipment principles, fault diagnosis and breakdown response that employees can apply directly on the floor.

Korea Zinc is also investing in AI capabilities, which have emerged as central to change in industrial settings. About 300 employees took part in the AI Novatus Academia, a joint program with Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), covering AI fundamentals and industrial applications. The program also produced practical projects, including systems for detecting abnormal operation of environmental equipment using process data and for predictive maintenance.

Safety training has been expanded as well. In February last year, Korea Zinc completed a roughly 680-square-meter safety experience center at the Onsan Smelter Safety Training Center, equipping it with more than 40 training installations that simulate real hazards such as gas explosions, falls and fires. The Onsan Smelter's safety training program won the top prize at the 2026 Safety Experience Training Center Best Practices Competition hosted by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

Korea Zinc conducted a total of 77,867 hours of safety and health training last year, up 65.4 percent from 47,065 hours in 2021. Investment in safety and health has also grown steadily. Last year the company invested 84.8 billion won in safety and health and 223.4 billion won in process equipment stabilization, bringing total investment to 308.2 billion won — more than double the 144.1 billion won recorded in 2021.

"In line with Chairman Choi Yun-beom's talent management philosophy, we are strengthening investment in training to support the growth of our people," a Korea Zinc corporate culture team official said. "We are working to upgrade our training programs and build a culture unique to Korea Zinc so that individual capability development and organizational competitiveness can advance together."

Meanwhile, Korea Zinc is also actively pursuing social contribution activities tied to its talent development initiatives. Through the Onsan Smelter, the company recently donated 80 million won to ChildFund Korea to support Korean-language education for students with immigrant backgrounds in Ulsan.