POSCO Expands 'Helping Youth Aging Out of Protection' Project to Group Companies... 65 Selected

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] The POSCO 1% Sharing Foundation is expanding the 'Do Dream' project, which supports the independence and employment of young adults who must leave child protection facilities upon turning 18, to its group companies.

POSCO announced on the 9th that starting this year, the support for the Do Dream project will be expanded to group companies such as POSCO International, POSCO Engineering & Construction, and POSCO ICT, and the number of selected participants will increase from 35 to 65 compared to previous years.

The group companies will select applicants who wish to find employment or start a business in each company's business area and will be responsible for education and mentoring. POSCO International will handle domestic and international sales, trade, and resource development fields; POSCO Engineering & Construction will cover construction, architecture, and civil engineering; POSCO ICT will be in charge of ICT fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), software development, big data, and information security. POSCO will be responsible for various other fields including steel, marketing, and education.

Considering the increased financial difficulties due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the independence support fund will be increased starting this year, and a program supporting health insurance will be added so that young adults leaving protection facilities do not face difficulties in case of health issues, providing approximately 10 million KRW per person.

The program for career planning and employment capability enhancement has also been improved to be more practical and experience-centered by adding one-on-one career consulting and lectures by experts, participant-led startup projects, and various small group meetings for networking.

Lee Ji-eun (pseudonym), who succeeded in finding employment through last year's Do Dream project, said, "It was overwhelming to balance studying for job preparation and making a living, but thanks to the POSCO 1% Sharing Foundation's Do Dream project, I was able to achieve my dream of becoming a clothing MD."

Applications for this year's Do Dream participants will be accepted from the 7th to the 18th. After document screening for the first round, interviews will be conducted, and the final 65 successful candidates will be announced in July. Any young adult aged 18 to 27 who is leaving child welfare facilities nationwide (including foster families and group homes) and is not receiving support from other organizations is eligible to apply.

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