GTEP Nurturing Young Trade Professionals from Regional Universities... Yoon Pledges Active Support for Developing Trade Experts (Comprehensive)

President-elect Yoon, Why Is He Focused on Fostering Young Trade Entrepreneurs?

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is encouraging young traders at the 'Meeting with Youth Trade National Representatives' held at the Korea International Trade Association in Samseong-dong, Seoul, on the 31st. This is the first time President-elect Yoon has visited individual economic organizations since his election. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Lee Min-je (27), a senior at Korea Maritime and Ocean University who hopes to work in the trade and logistics industry, has been participating in the Youth Trade Professional Development Program since January, scheduled to run until March next year. Although it is a challenging journey requiring more than 480 hours over 15 months, he is gaining practical trade experience and on-site training at export companies during a difficult employment period for regional university students, firmly believing this will give him a definite advantage in future employment.

"We will do our best to ensure the government provides ample and unlimited opportunities for youth and strive to contribute to companies and economic growth." President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol first visited the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) among economic organizations to encourage young trade professionals. Given Korea's economy's high dependence on exports and imports, it is believed that nurturing young trade professionals can effectively alleviate employment difficulties and revitalize small and medium export companies, which is why KITA was chosen as the first communication partner in the economic sector.

According to KITA on the 1st, the Regional Specialized Youth Trade Expert Training Project (GTEP), jointly hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KITA, is the only trade field training program available to students in the humanities and social sciences, where job opportunities are limited. It is also the only youth trade professional development program that has been continuously conducted every year for 16 years since 2007.

Including the 16th GTEP cohort active from January this year to March next year, a total of 11,282 young people (university students) have participated in this program so far, with 9,544 having completed it. The number of trade professionals supplied to the industry through job matching reached 5,512. For the 15th cohort, which held its graduation ceremony the day before, 65 out of 155 job seekers succeeded in finding employment, showing an employment rate of 41.9%.

Small and medium export companies participating in the program have achieved a cumulative export performance of $72.96 million through overseas marketing, exhibition participation, and buyer consultation support until last year.

University students can gain practical trade experience as a stepping stone for employment, and small and medium export companies can achieve results through support for recruitment difficulties and export-import activation, making it a win-win program. In particular, since 17 out of the 20 participating universities nationwide are located outside Seoul, GTEP also effectively provides employment opportunities for regional university students.

At the ‘Meeting with Youth Trade National Representatives’ held the day before, President-elect Yoon promised, "I look forward to the vigorous activities of young people in the future, and the new government will take an interest in nurturing young trade professionals and actively support them." About 200 people attended the event, including President-elect Yoon, KITA Chairman Koo Ja-yeol, university students participating in GTEP from 20 universities nationwide, and young trade professionals.

KITA presented President-elect Yoon with a policy proposal book titled ‘New Trade and Commerce Strategy’ and emphasized the need to enhance the job creation effect of trade. The proposal includes prioritizing housing and welfare support for export small and medium enterprises with high job creation effects and closing the gap in working conditions with large corporations.

However, there are opinions that for youth trade professional development to be more effective, active government support such as securing additional budgets and expanding participating export companies is necessary. Professor Baek Jae-seung of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, who heads the GTEP project team, advised, "To further expand students' practical trade experience, it is necessary to broaden the scope of participating companies beyond small and medium enterprises to include medium-sized export-import companies."

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