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| Students take part in an online class offering science education hosted by the BMW Korea Future Foundation in this provided photo. Courtesy of BMW Korea |
By Kim Bo-eun
BMW Korea said Thursday it is seeking to offer a new model for multinational companies' corporate social responsibility efforts here.
The carmaker established the BMW Korea Future Foundation in July 2011. Marking its 10th anniversary, BMW is seeking to engage in activities with greater positive social impact. This is centered on training young students to help them discover interest in the sciences and possibly become innovators in the automotive sector.
This year, it launched a new program for high school and college students, which provides automotive training. Participants are able to learn about BMW's advanced technology in the program.
BMW initiated the program in April at Gyeonggi Automotive Science High School and over 500 students have taken part in the program since.
BMW said it plans to offer the program via both online and offline mediums to enable more students to take part.
The foundation also launched an online class for younger students. This is a live online version of BMW Korea's "Junior Campus" program, where a BMW truck renovated into a science lab travels to elementary schools across the country to provide science classes to students.
The online class was initiated amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it difficult for the truck to physically travel to schools and offer classes in person.
The first online class was offered in September for 136 students at three schools on Jindo Island in South Jeolla Province. The class seeks to teach students scientific principles and students can also design their own eco-friendly vehicle.
A total of 144,000 children have taken part in the program in the last decade. The vehicle has traveled more than 122,000 kilometers over this period.
BMW is also preparing to launch another project, which centers on using electric vehicle batteries as energy storage systems (ESS). The carmaker is seeking to use ESS to provide electricity for environment-related events, the underprivileged and disaster-stricken areas.
The BMW Korea Future Foundation is the first non-profit foundation of a foreign carmaker to be set up here. In the past decade, a total of 215,000 recipients were provided training or received other forms of assistance via the organization. The foundation made donations amounting to 23.7 billion won as of 2020.
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