Hyundai Motor Group on Thursday announced that it will hire about 36,000 young people over the next three years and support an additional 12,000 people’s start-ups.

The plans come after the company proclaimed a three-year 81 trillion won ($68.9 billion) investment plan early this year along with the adoption of the wage peak system early this month to make way for youth employment.

According to the plan announced Thursday, 41 companies under the group will hire a total of 35,700 people by 2018, and an accumulated 60,000 by 2020. This includes 1,700 interns, of which 650 will be dispatched abroad.

“The global interns will work at Hyundai and Kia offices as well as Mobis and others overseas. In order to give more opportunities to the humanities major students, global interns will be selected from those who have talent in foreign languages where the offices are located,” Hyundai stated.

In a means to support young people’s start-ups, the company will run training programs where participants will attain hands-on knowledge and experience in the automobile and parts manufacturing sector.

They will be paid 1.5 million won for six months and will be granted various financial programs to start a business of their own, while still being associated with Hyundai’s Creative Economy Innovation Center in Gwangju. 

The company is also planning to support 2,000 “Meister” vocational school students in pragmatic training programs so that the graduates could be sent right off to the production fields when hired.

“The blueprint contains details of what the business group can come up with in executing its social responsibilities,” a Hyundai spokesman said.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)