The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT, Minister: Lim Hyesook) announced an initiative to help young people to learn and acquire digital skills in the era of digital transformation.

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Background

With the digital transformation reshaping the entire economy and society, the Korean government has proactively responded to such changes by having prepared the ‘National AI Strategy,’ and the large-scale of investment in partnership between the public and private sectors into Digital New Deal projects such as Data Dam and Intelligent Government. The MSIT will also take the digital transformation as a new opportunity to prepare a stepping stone for economic recovery and innovative growth. Digital transformation is a good opportunity for young people to take on challenges and grow as they can take the lead in addressing social problems with their creative ideas.

​ Strategies

(Strategy 1 : Take on Challenges) Both ICT majors and non-majors will be provided with systematic, customized training programs so that they can unlock their potential. The MSIT will also support to enhance the young’s digital competence qualitatively, while providing a wide range of platforms where they can collaborate and try new ideas.

(Strategy 2 : Support the Growth) Young people will be provided with a support system along with necessary resources and infrastructure, and efforts to digitize the conventional industries will be made. With these efforts, the youngsters from different sectors will learn how to digitally implement their innovative ideas.

(Strategy 3 : Globalization) There will be support to help the domestic companies to go global and to create an environment to attract global start-ups and talent into Korea. ​



Tactics

(For students and job seekers)

- For digital/ICT majors : Internship programs of public institutions and start-ups will be provided up to 3,800 people, and global internship and training programs to 280 people by 2022. The finance aid will be granted to companies that offer internship programs for the young. In addition, information about all types of digital/ICT contests (e.g.: K-Digital Challenge) will be shared. There will be also a financial aid to the research derived from such contests and the help to turn them into business models. -For non-digital/ICT majors : Digital transformation will become a part of the education curriculum, allowing 4,000 people to learn this subject by 2022. Moreover, the MSIT is targeting to educate 50,000 soldiers about AI and software between 2022 and 2026. To provide a more variety of learning experiences, translation for the lectures from foreign schools will be provided while making the lectures from the software-focused universities publicly available by 2022.

(For young workers, entrepreneurs, researchers)

- For young small business owners : Digital transformation education will be. In addition, cloud-based solutions will be introduced to help them address local social issues, and to support business model demonstrations. To reduce the financial burden of the young business owners, the sales commission fees of their products selling on home shopping channels will be reduced. Furthermore, the MSIT will help them to place their products on live commerce channels, too. Discounts for post office parcel delivery fees.

- For content creators (one-person media, etc.):They will be given an opportunity to globalize their content by regenerating the content reflecting the culture of the targeted country’s market. The K-content will be able to reach the global market in partnership with the domestic app companies. Further efforts will be made to match the live commerce creators and SMEs while providing them trainings and infrastructure for content creation. Furthermore, ‘Metaverse Academy’ will be initiated, and the legal consulting on IP protection will be offered. To boost the content creators’ market, the MSIT will help to increase the number of studios for one-person media.

- For young researchers : The financial aids will be given up to 600 researchers when they do their first research and research institutes will be mandated to engage a certain percentage of young researchers in collaborative research projects. The MSIT will ensure that young researchers are paid enough and female researchers can get enough support to strike a balance between childcare and work, particularly for those working in the emerging industries. Sejong Science Fellowship Program will guarantee the grace period of working in research institutes up to six months, previously from 30 days while researchers working overseas will be able to stay up to one year from six months.

- For software developers(full time and freelancer) :There will be an array of support measures for software developers such as providing cloud resources and meeting rooms, and covering the costs for PR and conference events. Not just university students and permanent works of companies but also freelancers will be able to take the digital competence improvement program. In addition, more SME employees will be encouraged to take master’s and Ph.D programs. The MSIT is also planning to create a software/ICT complex to nurture and recruit local talent.

-For digital start-ups : Special funds within the Korea IT Fund will be created for young entrepreneurs along with the support system in partnership between the private and public sectors. An event called the ‘Digital Start-up Camp in My Hometown’ will be arranged to discover and nurture local start-ups. To help start-ups, the cutting-edge network system will be in place in public houses and other facilities made for youth. There will be also good opportunities for domestic start-ups to create joint ventures with their global counterparts. The CEOs and employees of digital start-ups will get the priority to live in the Digital Youth Residence. ​

Online Service(Digital.go.kr) The government is planning to create an integrated online website that offers information that what types of support can be provided from the private sector along with details about the new initiative for supporting the youth. ​

For further information, please contact Spokesperson for foreign media KIM Hee-Hyun (E-mail: coro0131@korea.kr, 82-44-202-4027) of the Ministry of Science and ICT. ​



Please refer to the attached PDF