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

A Total of 11,282 Youth (University Students) Participate in the Youth Trade Professional Development Program GTEP
Regional University Students Gain Trade Field Training Opportunities, Small and Medium Export Companies Experience Export Increase Effects

[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 from January this year 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 time when employment is difficult for regional university students, and he is confident this will definitely give him an advantage in future employment.

"We will do our best to become a government that provides sufficient and unlimited opportunities to young people 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 economic structure, which heavily depends on exports and imports, it is believed that fostering young trade professionals can effectively alleviate youth unemployment 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 class of GTEP, which is 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 personnel supplied to the industry through job matching reached 5,512. For the 15th class, 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 revitalization, 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.

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

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