POSCO International announced on the 6th that it has started a new concept internship called "Virtual Metaverse Externship" utilizing a metaverse virtual office -- the first among domestic general trading companies. The POSCO International "externship" program, which ran for 2 weeks starting from the 19th of last month, was designed so that interns work in the metaverse rather than at the company, gaining work experience -- unlike the traditional internship method of in-company job experience for 4+ weeks, it was planned to match the changing hybrid work trend. This externship was designed for job seekers who find full-time work difficult or university students in the metropolitan area during vacation. The metaverse externship model: participants enter a virtual office environment (using platforms like Gather or Spatial) where they interact with POSCO International employees through avatars, attend virtual meetings, complete assigned projects, and experience company culture; the advantages over traditional internship include geographic flexibility (no commute to physical office required), accessibility for students at universities far from Seoul, and lower disruption to academic schedules; the virtual environment allows more students to experience corporate work culture simultaneously than physical office capacity would permit.