Seoul City to Establish 'K-Beauty' Talent Development System and Foster Star Companies in the Beauty Industry

'Beauty Business Academy' Opens in July... Training Specialized Talent for the Beauty Industry Including Brand Managers and Live Commerce Sellers
100 Trainees in the Second Half of the Year... Support for Employment and Entrepreneurship with Mentoring by Professionals, Startup Consulting, and Interview Special Lectures

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 23rd, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that as the first step to strengthen the ecosystem of the beauty industry to enhance the competitiveness of Seoul's beauty industry, it will nurture Seoul-style K-Beauty talents such as cosmetics experts and foster star brands in the beauty industry through customized support according to the growth stages of companies.

Seoul will complement the existing public and private beauty education, which has so far focused on technical training, and establish a system to cultivate industry-specialized professionals practically needed in the beauty industry. The plan is to train talents required in the beauty industry field, such as brand managers, beauty brand startup experts, and beauty live commerce sellers, into business professionals who can strengthen global competitiveness.

To this end, the first operation will begin on the 18th of next month at the educational space prepared at Dongdaemun Seoul Fashion Hub Baeumtteul (DDP Fashion Mall) under the name of the ‘Seoul Beauty Business Academy.’ Four beauty business courses will each train 25 people, nurturing a total of 100 talents this year.

The courses will be operated over 5 months. The recruitment courses consist of four subjects: ▲Brand Manager (BM) training (25 people) ▲Customized Cosmetics Expert (25 people) ▲Beauty Live Commerce Seller training (25 people) ▲Beauty Brand Startup (25 people).

Additionally, after completing the 5-month training course, a 2-week various employment and startup support program will be conducted to connect to employment and entrepreneurship. Trainees who want to find jobs can participate in special lectures on beauty industry employment trends and resume writing, as well as mock interviews. For those aspiring to start a business, courses such as startup item discovery and business model design lectures, startup support system lectures, and business plan consulting are prepared.

Seoul will also begin discovering and nurturing promising companies that will lead the growth of the ‘Seoul-style beauty industry.’ Fifty promising companies with excellent ideas and products will be selected and supported with various marketing programs. Applying a survival format called ‘Seoul Beauty Fighter,’ the better the company is selected, the more support benefits are provided as incentives, and if selected as one of the final three companies, each will receive marketing support worth approximately 25 million KRW.

Seoul plans to first recruit participating companies through a public contest, then select 50 companies and finalists (within the top 25) through quantitative and qualitative evaluations. The 50 selected companies will receive a basic package program including Instagram marketing, crowdfunding participation, and consulting after reviewing and consulting on their existing marketing strategies. For the top 25 finalists, enhanced marketing support programs such as supporter and experience group marketing using SNS like Instagram and packaging design support will be provided.

Among the 25 companies that experience strategic marketing and grow through the finals, the top 7 companies with high mission achievement will receive benefits such as collaborations with excellent company YouTubers and beauty influencers, KakaoTalk channel gift packaging, beauty application-linked marketing, and NFT production and operation. Then, through the final evaluation, the top 3 selected companies will receive support such as live commerce filming, famous influencer group purchases, model collaboration magazine shoots, and overseas market development.

Furthermore, Seoul plans to gradually expand the target of the ‘Beauty Fighter’ program, which started this year in the cosmetics field, to Seoul-style beauty industries including beauty devices and beauty applications under beauty tech. Through this, Seoul aims to discover various promising companies leading Seoul’s beauty in multiple fields and nurture them into global companies.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Seoul’s Economic Policy Office, said, “Nurturing competent talents who will lead the future Seoul beauty industry and discovering and fostering promising companies are the most important foundations for the Seoul beauty industry ecosystem.” He added, “We will nurture Seoul-style future beauty talents capable of responding to rapidly changing industrial environments such as the expansion of the e-commerce market and intensified global beauty industry competition, and foster beauty companies with technological competitiveness to make ‘Seoul’ lead global market trends.”

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