- Holds a five-day camp at Small Business Training Institute on August 20 with 40 teams (or 144 students) that passed the
second round of evaluation in this year’s Specialized High School App Development Contest.
- The camp includes differentiated programs designed to help students find jobs or start their own businesses by developing
apps through training on content programming, biweekly task assignments and professional mentoring program
- Compared to last year, this year’s contest doubled in scale with the participation of 240 teams (or 800 students) nationwide,
and the final 20 teams will receive a combined total of KRW 80 million worth of prizes, including prize money and overseas
training opportunities.
Seoul, Korea, August 20, 2012 — SK Planet announced today the opening of the five-day App development Mentoring Camp
jointly held by SK Planet and the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA). The camp will take place at the Small
Business Training Institute with forty teams that passed the second evaluation in this year’s Specialized High School App
Development Contest.
The Specialized High School App Development Contest 2012, jointly held by SMBA and SK Planet, began in April this year.
After the first round evaluation in May, 95 teams were chosen and divided into two groups – one for teams deemed capable of
writing apps right away and the other for those that need professional training. Then, 40 teams (or 144 students) were selected
to take part in the camp through the second evaluation in mid-August.
These teams will receive practical training in areas such as content planning, understanding mobile UX/UI*, and methods for
smartphone content development. They will also develop capacity for app development and form a networking community through
conversations with those who have successfully started companies with their apps and meetings with mentors consisted of
professional app developers.
*UX: User Experience, UI: User Interface
Participants in this contest will develop their apps by leveraging professional know-how acquired through education on
programming, biweekly task assignments and the mentoring camp.
Among the 40 teams participating in this camp, 33 teams were selected for outstanding developmental capacity and excellent
ideas through the two rounds of evaluations in the app contest, and the other seven teams were chosen for their creativity and
developmental capacity from teams who graduated a five-week professional app development course at Seokyeong University.
After the camp, the 40 teams will keep receiving mentoring from professional developers and last year’s graduates to complete
their app development for the final evaluation to be held at the end of October. Compared to last year, this year’s contest doubled
in scale with the participation of 240 teams (or 800 students) nationwide, and the 20 teams will receive a combined total of KRW
83 million worth of prizes including prize money, development grants and overseas training opportunities.
The final evaluation will review the app’s possibility to attract angel investment and venture capital investment, and the 20 teams
will receive prizes, including KRW 5 million for the grand prize winner (1 team), KRW 3 million for the 1st prize winners (3 teams),
and KRW 1 million for the honorary prize winners (16 teams). Moreover contest winners will enjoy a chance to receive overseas
training or job opportunities at IT-related companies.
Winning teams who wish to start their own businesses will be provided with an office space at the business startup incubation
center specialized for app development and receive startup funds from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation. Furthermore,
they will also have opportunities to work at SK Planet or other IT-related companies. Well-made apps will be commercialized
through T Store and receive strong marketing support from SK Planet.
SK Planet and SMBA expect this contest to promote business startups and employment of specialized high school students,
thereby creating a social atmosphere that places more value on peoples’ abilities and skills rather than their academic
backgrounds. Moreover, the two parties also hope that the contest will become a regular event that identifies and nurtures talents
capable of leading the future mobile app market, thus contributing greatly to the overall mobile ecosystem in Korea.
“Together with SMBA, SK Planet is delighted to hold the second Specialized High School App Development Contest, a
meaningful event where we can discover talents and help them become future leaders of app development by providing them
with professional support,” said Kim Young-chul SK Planet's Head of Open Collaboration Promote Center. “Going forward, we
plan to create many more training programs like the mentoring camp to allow students to acquire the latest information and
knowledge on mobile apps, and become highly-skilled experts in this area.”
