Gachon University was aware early of the importance of software and its unlimited uses in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Therefore, it established a software university for the first time in Korea in 2002 and is striving to strengthen the students’ software competency by being selected as one of the top eight software-oriented universities. The project, pushed by Gachon University, aims to solve the "supply cliff" at a time when the universities are not providing enough professionally trained workers needed by the industry.

 As a part of this project, on February 13 Gachon University signed an agreement with Wise-Itech, a software development company, concerning the operation of a recruitment-linked internship program and the joint coordination of its curriculum. To implement this, the school opened 'Gachon University & Wise-ItechSoftware Track', which will allow Wise-Itech to develop educational textbooks with the school. In addition, field education is provided to those who do a minor, double major, or interdisciplinary major in software as well as students of the software department at Gachon University. A recruitment-linked internship program is a process in which students perform tasks like developing software apps to test students' software skills. Students can be hired as permanent employees if they are evaluated well on their practical ability and professionalism through six to eight weeks of the internship program. Wise-Itech declared that they will select the right number of senior students among those who took part in the education program, and run an internship program during the summer break for them. Also, Wise-Itech will hire highly qualified students as permanent employees. In addition, they have decided to donate their machine learning¹ automation platform called "Wise-Profit" to the software department of Gachon University and the Global Management Science Track in Saas² form. This is not merely a formal business agreement. It is actually aimed at enhancing the educational effectiveness and producing excellent professionals through practical training using commercially available solutions.

 Through this agreement, students will be able to develop practical skills through on-site practical training provided by the company, and will also be offered opportunities for employment. Moreover, the company can obtain the personalized personnel it needs in the field. This will be a “win-win” for both students and companies. In order to raise its reputation as a software-oriented university, Gachon University plans to provide a diversity of software educations and expand various cooperation programs with local companies in Pangyo Techno Valley, adjacent to the university. I look forward to the future of Gachon University, which is investing heavily in software education and business to keep up with the current software-driven society.

 ¹Machine Learning: One of the research areas of artificial intelligence, the technology and techniques that seek to realize functions such as human learning ability on the computer
 ²Sass: Software as a Service