At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, South Korea ranked eighth in the world. The outstanding achievements of Korean athletes can be attributed in some part to the athletic specialist system established in the 1960s and to corporate support for athletes since the 1980s. Why not apply the early discovery and training system for athletic talent and corporate support for athletes to develop scientific talent?
Individuals make career decisions based on their interests and on expectations of wealth and social reputation. While providing career counseling to university students, I found that students mainly want to choose a career based on their interests. For those who decide to become doctors, the criteria may include expectations of wealth and social reputation, as well as a desire to contribute to society.
One of the issues facing our society -- a focus on one occupational group, such as doctors -- is an obstacle at a time when we need to prepare for the future through the development of scientific talent. We need to open a new phase in fostering scientific talent for the era of the fourth industrial revolution, represented by artificial intelligence, quantum computing, aerospace, biotechnology, the internet of things, robotics, blockchain and other developments.
The medical profession, compared to scientific research and development jobs, has the advantages of a late retirement age, high income, social recognition and high preference in attracting a spouse. In developing scientific talent, addressing these limitations is no simple task. In-depth efforts are needed to solve such problems from the macro perspectives of institutions, society and education. It is difficult for us to address the challenges all at once, but we believe that solutions can be presented in one field.
The advantages of developing athletic talent can be applied to training competitive scientific talent. First, as with students enrolled in special tracks for physical education, students talented in science are selected early (i.e., in elementary school) and receive separate education. It is possible to create a curriculum for teaching students who have been discovered early and provide them with a mentoring system.
For example, we could establish a system in which students in domestic master's and doctoral courses become mentors of selected science specialists, and at the government level, we pay scholarships to graduate students who become mentors. Through mentoring, we can train young people to think scientifically by asking questions that can develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Mentees can listen to their mentors' opinions on various science topics and express their opinions logically. Mentors can teach mentees through advanced experiments and research activities as well as theory on in-depth topics or the latest scientific research (e.g., AI, gene scissors, blockchain technology). Since the mentors would be graduate students from a variety of schools, the program would require systems for selecting quality mentors, as well as standardization for mentoring, and training in mentoring techniques.
Second, like physical education at middle schools, science at middle schools should be established nationwide as part of the education system. For example, we can consider establishing a semiconductor middle school in Suwon, where Samsung produces semiconductors; a middle school in Jeonju, home to the Rural Development Administration and Korea Agricultural and Marine University; an aerospace middle school in Sacheon, where the Korea AeroSpace Administration is located; and an AI middle school in Daejeon, where the National Science and Technology Human Resource Development Center is located.
In the case of the United States and Japan, some middle schools operate STEM programs to strengthen science education. In the United States, STEM programs for middle school students specializing in science take a project-based learning and problem-solving approach. Students talented in science gain more interest in their future careers when they receive intensive education through specialized curriculum, experiments and research, field learning, and convergence education (e.g., art, psychology, sociology). Early education through science middle schools can help us develop competitive science talent.
Third, companies can assist in training science talent. Companies can lay the financial foundations necessary for developing science talent by supporting those who are selected early in life. Donations can be used to award generous scholarships, purchase equipment necessary for individual science projects and provide overseas science training during school breaks. Of course, companies that support young athletes benefit from advertising through the athletes' media exposure. Since fostering scientific talent has no advertising benefit, it is necessary to provide incentives in other ways. For example, companies that sponsor science students could receive tax incentives at the national or local levels.
Personal interest in a career, which is the basis for making decisions about one's future, becomes stronger and more important as knowledge increases and competencies develop. By applying the above strategies, we can look forward to young people growing their interest in science and becoming competitive R&D talents in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Park In-jo
Park In-jo is an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology at Jeonbuk National University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.
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