The Korea Social Value Solidarity Foundation, in collaboration with the National Credit Union Federation(NACUFOK) and the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency(KoSEA), conducted the ‘Credit Union Social Finance Specialist Training’ at the Shinhyup Central Training Institute in Daejeon from Monday 22nd to Wednesday 24th September.

Aimed at deepening understanding of the characteristics and financial needs of social economy enterprises, this training comprised 11 subjects. These ranged from understanding social finance to designing loan programmes for social economy enterprises, loan screening, post-loan management, case analysis, and networking with social finance intermediaries. The programme concluded successfully with the participation of 42 individuals, including practitioners from designated credit unions serving as social finance hubs, local government agreement loan cooperatives, and social finance intermediaries.

Kim Jong-hoon, Head of the Korea Social Value Solidarity Fund, who planned the programme, stated that in the current climate where ESG, impact investing, and social value are emerging as new financial evaluation criteria, and where the government and local authorities are strengthening social finance through policy, it is not optional but an essential task for financial institutions such as credit unions to develop an understanding of social finance. He affirmed SVS’s commitment to ongoing cooperation and support for this purpose.

Since 2020, SVS has designed training programmes centred on understanding social finance, social value assessment, fundraising, corporate management analysis, loan project operations, and investment project operations. This aims to enhance the capabilities of practitioners at social finance intermediary institutions and invigorate social finance projects. In collaboration with organisations such as the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, it has been conducting nationwide training to cultivate social finance experts, delivered both online and offline.