NHN, the operator of Korea’s top Internet portal Naver, has established a new educational institution to nurture software developers with practical skills and knowledge in design, humanities and management.

The two-year NHN NEXT Institute will open its first semester in Pangyo on the outskirts of Seoul in March, the company said. It plans to invest 100 billion won ($88 million) in the school over the next 10 years.

The initiative aims to help address the lack of talent and creativity, key hurdles for Korea’s software industry.

Kim Pyung-chul, dean of NHN NEXT, said the school will produce creators of “software that contributes to improving the quality of future human lives."

“In the fields of search, portal, games, social networking and cloud services, software is moving beyond functioning for business efficiency and toward creating value in people’s daily lives, which we call Next Network software,” he said.

The school aims to produce industry-ready talent by focusing on practice-based, self-directed learning instead of the traditional emphasis on theoretical studies, the company said in a press release.

With a goal of promoting “people-oriented software,” the school will also imbue students with knowledge in liberal arts, management and design aesthetics.

The institute benchmarked Ollin College in Boston, which has earned a global reputation for educating creative engineers. Kim and other school officials visited Ollin in May.

Ollin College encourages students’ creativity and potential abilities by carrying out practical and theoretical studies side by side and teaching management, humanities, design, art and many other subjects through exchanges with other nearby universities, according to NEXT officials.

NEXT, which has registered with the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, will have 13 full-time professors and invite domestic and foreign experts, Park Soon-young, a team manager of the company, said.

The school will accept 60 new students through rolling admission from July 18 to 30, and will accept another 60 through regular admission in December of this year.

NEXT held its first promotion event at NHN’s headquarters in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, Saturday. Some 300 students and their parents attended.

NHN NEXT will be operating under a trimester system for the two years of instruction. Students must participate in a internship program after the two-year course.

The school will provide full scholarships to all students and will help arrange venture investment when they start up a business, Park said.

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