Labor ministry highlights Polytechnics' prototype support for small businesses

The labor ministry said Tuesday that Korea Polytechnics' Dream Workshop supported 344 prototype projects in 2025, linking small businesses with campus equipment and faculty expertise across the country.

The program also opened Korea Polytechnics' facilities to the public for free technical training, serving 47,000 people in 2025.

At its Asan campus, Korea Polytechnics helped O2Com, which supplies key components for OLED deposition to Samsung and LG Display, improve a deposition-monitoring sensor. Because the component's precision affects product quality, Wi Jae-hyung, a professor in semiconductor packaging engineering, led precision machining on the prototype.

The Semiconductor Convergence Campus helped Siheung startup AEL Company make a smart-farm climate-control board in about three weeks. AEL had sought an automated crop-environment control system to reduce farm energy use amid high oil prices but lacked the specialist expertise and equipment to build it. At the Daegu campus, Korea Polytechnics supported Meister's production of enclosed nozzle parts to contain paint spray during primer application. Professor Lee Ji-woong replaced a manual process with robotic spraying and standardized process conditions to improve coating consistency and worker safety.

A company representative said access to the university's facilities, equipment and faculty consulting helped turn technical challenges that would have been difficult to solve independently into prototypes, aiding product commercialization and on-site productivity.

“Korea Polytechnics' campuses should be spaces that breathe with their communities,” Lee Cheol-su, its chairman, said. “We will work with local businesses to solve their technical challenges and get closer to communities as an open educational community where all residents can learn technical skills.”