SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) today announced that its software education program, Smart Robot Coding School, was recognized by the ITU Telecom World 2017 for the innovation success achieved in the education industry. The ITU Telecom presented SK Telecom a Global Corporate Award for best E-education technology at the ceremony held on September 28 at BEXCO in Busan.

International Telecommunication Union(ITU), a UN specialized agency for information and communication technologies, granted the awards to large companies for the first time for making significant contribution to the society.

The Smart Robot Coding School of SK Telecom was launched in February 2014 and was designed to help children aged 6 to 10 years learn how to develop software. Using the smart robot Albert as well as smart devices like smartphones and tablets, the program helps children understand the concept of mathematics and easily learn the process of coding—an essential part of software development process.

Since its launch, the Smart Robot Coding School has received extensive positive responses from European nations, including France and Spain, as well as countries in Asia, such as China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Later, the program was extended to Latin America, including Paraguay and Costa Rica. Currently, Smart Robot Coding School offers software education to students in nearly 250 elementary schools in 20 countries with more than 20,000 units of the smart robot Albert exported throughout the world.

The program has already achieved high recognition in the U.S. by receiving the top prize at the ‘Reimagine Education 2015,’ hosted by QS and the Wharton School, in December 2015. It also received an achievement award at the ‘Software Education Festival,’ hosted by the Korean government, for its contribution to the spread of the software education in Korea and throughout the world.

Meanwhile, with the revision of the relevant laws in 2015, learning to code will be mandatory in a phased manner for students in middle school by 2018 and those at fifth and sixth grades in elementary schools by 2019. In the U.K. coding has been part of the regular curriculum at elementary, middle, and high schools. In Israel, computer science has been taught since 1994.