SK Innovation, which is building a large-scale EV battery plant in Jackson County, Georgia, USA, and Jackson County have donated a total of USD 120,000 over 2 years to the Empower College & Career Center (EC3) and the Commerce City Schools (CCS) in Georgia.

SK Innovation announced on the 19th (local time) that a small ceremony was held at the Georgia State Capitol to deliver a donation of $60,000 from SK Innovation to EC3, a charter high school in Jackson County scheduled to begin operations in 2021. The ceremony was attended by Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson, SK Battery America President Hwang Jun-ho, Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce President Jim Shaw, CEO of Empower College and Career Center John Uesseler, Superintendent of Commerce City Schools Joy Tolbert.

The Jackson County Development Authority will match this funding through its Education Matching Grant and donate $60,000 to CCS, where the EV battery facility is located. This means EC3 and CCS will receive a total of $120,000 over 2 years. The support this time is in addition to last year’s donation of USD 60,000 raised in the same way, in which SK Innovation donated $30,000 and Jackson Country matched with the same amount.

These donations reflect SK Group’s management philosophy of pursuing the happiness of various stakeholders surrounding the company. Back in 1974, SK established a nonprofit foundation interested in nurturing future leaders and talent called the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies. The foundation has provided scholarships to about 3,500 students, and it still continues to support more future talents.

Since SK Innovation’s initial announcement in November 2018 that they would invest USD 1.67 billion and create 2,000 jobs at a new manufacturing facility in Jackson County, the company has continued to support the local community. In addition to the 2019 donations to EC3 and CCS, SK Innovation donated USD 400,000 in May 2020 to help Augusta University response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to increased customer interest in EV batteries, in June 2020, SK Innovation announced it would invest another USD 940 million to expand their presence in Georgia with a second facility. Through SK battery America, the U.S. production subsidiary of SK Innovation’s battery business, the company broke ground on this second facility in July and expects to create 600 jobs in addition to the 2,000 long-term jobs initially announced.

The recruitment for the 2,600 long-term jobs at the site has already begun. 60 new long-term employees are already working at the site. These employees include production supervisors, engineers and other specialists who are part of the initial EV battery production team. The company is planning to add about 200 local employees by year’s end.