Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Create 2,000 Public Digital Youth Jobs

Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Hire 2,050 Youth at 5 Public Institutions

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 12th that it has finalized a budget of 20.76 billion KRW for non-face-to-face and digital government jobs in the third supplementary budget of 2020, following parliamentary review, to overcome the youth employment crisis caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and to support small business owners and SMEs in responding to the post-COVID era.

This is a follow-up measure to the "Employment and Corporate Stability Measures to Overcome the Employment Crisis" announced at the 5th Emergency Economic Meeting on April 22, aimed at creating non-face-to-face and digital government jobs in the public sector. The Ministry prioritizes providing jobs that can create public value and help youth career development, and is accepting applications from 2,050 candidates through five institutions for five non-face-to-face and digital government job projects until the 20th.

Number of Hires by Organization and Business Description

First, the Small and Medium Business Distribution Center and the Small Business Broadcasting Information Center will each hire 25 young workers to operate the "Digital Streaming Market" to establish a foundation for small business owners to enter the online market and strengthen their competitiveness. The youth will work as creators, filming staff, assistant writers, etc., planning and promoting content for live commerce, filming, and editing videos and subtitles. The hired youth are expected to develop professional skills in online content and product planning and marketing through live commerce events and on-site experiences, which will help them find jobs or start businesses in related fields later.

The Small Enterprise and Market Service plans to hire 1,500 young people to support basic data collection and management, as well as online promotion, for about 1,470 traditional markets nationwide. They will investigate basic data such as the characteristics of each traditional market and store status, and perform tasks such as discovering online specialized elements for each traditional market and online promotion. The collected basic data of traditional markets will be used for planning and establishing new policies for the digital transformation of traditional markets, including live commerce and online delivery.

Three representative policy finance institutions for SMEs ? the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, and the Small Enterprise and Market Service ? will hire young workers to support the establishment of non-face-to-face and digital financial infrastructure in preparation for the post-COVID era. The Korea Technology Finance Corporation plans to hire 100 young people to build a digital archive for introducing a 'non-face-to-face electronic contract platform' that enables electronic contract signing without visits. The youth will perform tasks such as digitizing existing paper documents and adding data related to client companies.

The Korea SMEs and Startups Agency will hire 200 young people to promote database (DB) systematization by managing and supplementing data quality of policy fund demand companies to introduce an artificial intelligence (AI)-based policy fund evaluation system. The hired youth will collect and analyze data of policy fund demand companies and perform DB quality management tasks such as error checking. The Small Enterprise and Market Service plans to hire 200 young people to organize loan screening documents that surged in the first half of this year due to COVID-19, manage and maintain the loan management system DB, and conduct statistical surveys related to small business owners.

The eligibility for the five public institution job projects is youth aged 19 to 34, and qualification requirements can be found in the announcements of each institution. Kim Dae-hee, Director of SME Policy at the Ministry, said, "The non-face-to-face and digital job projects in the public sector are a catalyst for small business owners and SMEs to establish a foundation for digital transformation in the post-COVID era," adding, "It will be an opportunity not only for small business owners and SMEs but also for youth to enhance their job competencies through various tasks at public institutions, overcome the COVID-19 crisis, and seek new jobs."