Call for Local Governments Participating in 'Job-Seeking Abandonment' Youth Support Project Until April 15

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on the 31st that it will hold a two-week public contest from the 1st to the 15th of next month to select local governments to carry out the 'Youth Challenge Support Project.' The project is a program that supports the labor market participation of young people who have given up on job seeking.

Earlier, on the 3rd, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced plans to implement this project through the 'Youth Employment Activation Measures.' The core of the plan is to invest 6.5 billion KRW to discover 5,000 young people who have given up on job seeking and support their participation in the labor market and employment. The number of young people categorized as 'not working or studying' increased from 313,000 in 2018 to 360,000 in 2019, and 448,000 last year, prompting the launch of this project.

The project will proceed in stages centered on local government youth centers: 'recruitment of local youth who have given up on job seeking → provision of customized programs for 2 to 3 months → linkage to employment, entrepreneurship, and the National Employment Support System.' The customized program in the second stage consists of six modules, including counseling, career exploration, and employment competency enhancement. The Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to select about 20 local governments in this contest and support program operation costs (total project cost of 4 billion KRW) according to the scale of the project.

The selected local governments will collaborate from May with youth centers, employment centers, university job centers, local government social welfare departments, youth support centers, and others to discover and recruit local youth who have given up on job seeking and support their participation in the programs.

Kwon Changjun, Director of Youth Employment Policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "Since the core of this project is the 'discovery' of youth who have given up on job seeking, 'outreach services' to find these youth in the community are important," and added, "We ask for active interest and participation from local governments."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.