Seoul City Launches Full-Scale Digital Skills Enhancement Training... Comprehensive Capability Building

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[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is set to fully implement the 'Seoul Digital Competency Enhancement Promotion Plan' aimed at bridging the digital divide for vulnerable groups, including the elderly. The plan is to provide comprehensive competency enhancement measures specifically designed for the elderly, who are the most digitally challenged among the digitally marginalized groups.

This plan focuses on building and strengthening an education system that reflects the needs of the elderly by ▲expanding and reinforcing one-on-one face-to-face education between instructors and learners ▲securing customized educational content tailored to the demand of the elderly to increase the effectiveness of digital education.

First, instead of having the elderly come to education centers, the plan expands and strengthens face-to-face, close-contact education where instructors provide lessons ‘right beside’ the learners. Digital guides will visit places frequently visited by the elderly, such as parks, walking trails, movie theaters, restaurants, and stores that use digital devices, to promptly resolve difficulties the elderly face in using digital devices.

Through the ‘Digital Learning Center Project’ conducted jointly with the Ministry of Science and ICT, any citizen can receive mobile, real-life-centered digital competency education near their homes at community centers, libraries, and other local facilities.

Launched in April, this project offers free education courses ranging from basic digital skills to daily life, advanced, and special courses at 123 digital learning centers based in local communities such as community centers, welfare centers, and underutilized facilities. Each learning center assigns a team of two instructors and two supporters to enhance digital competencies in everyday life areas such as smart device usage, transportation, and finance. The goal is to educate 90,000 citizens throughout the year. Notably, a new initiative this year introduces digital experience zones where users can learn how to use kiosks (unmanned devices), tablets, VR devices, and more, which have become increasingly common in daily life.

Efforts will also be actively made to discover and secure educational content tailored for the elderly. This content will be available free of charge to all Seoul citizens through an online-offline integrated platform. In addition to providing diverse educational content this year, a pilot system will be introduced in the second half of the year that recommends customized education through AI tutor-based competency diagnostics.

A virtuous cycle ecosystem linking digital education for the elderly to digital jobs will also be established. The plan anticipates creating 742 jobs. The ‘Visiting Digital Guides’ (100 people) and ‘Anywhere Support Teams’ (100 people) will be recruited targeting digitally marginalized groups, including elderly people aged 55 and older and women returning to work after career breaks.

Park Jong-su, Director of Smart City Policy at Seoul Metropolitan Government, said, “As the full lifting of social distancing brings daily life recovery within reach, Seoul will take the lead to ensure that elderly people, who have been bewildered by digital devices, are no longer marginalized but can stand proudly as members of the digital society.”

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