What Will My Future Job Be?... Mapo-gu Hosts Online Career Fair

Providing Online Career Exploration and Job Experience Opportunities for 2,700 First-Year Middle School Students... 80 Job Experience Videos Created with Participation from 70 Institutions Available for Free Learning... Expected to Serve as a Future Career Guide in 4th Industry, Startups, Culture and Arts, and Academic Fields

Rapper Job Experience Video Shooting

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Mapo-gu (Mayor Yudonggyun) will hold the online career fair "Career ZOOM-IN" (the 8th Mapo Career Fair) from the 21st to the 29th, providing youth with opportunities for self-directed career exploration and job experience.

Now in its 8th year, the Mapo Career Fair is part of the Mapo Innovation Education Project aimed at helping youth explore careers and occupations. Originally planned as an offline event like previous years, it has been changed to an online format due to social distancing measures caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

This year, 2,700 first-year middle school students in Mapo-gu, who are undergoing the free semester system, will participate through pre-arranged school connections. The event will provide and allow learning from 80 job experience videos produced by 70 participating organizations online.

The fair is organized around four themes: the 4th Industrial Revolution, startups, culture and arts, and academic departments. It features popular occupations among youth such as creators, 3D printing experts, rappers, psychological counselors, cosmetics experts, and various types of entrepreneurs.

Additionally, there will be opportunities to learn about promising future academic departments such as network security solutions, smart web content, and polymechanics, serving as a career guide for youth curious about future industries.

In particular, the job experience videos, filmed in advance by visiting workplaces of professionals, are structured as if youth are conversing with the professionals. They include introductions of the professionals, daily scenes of the job, explanations of job characteristics answered by the professionals, and messages of encouragement and support.

Moreover, materials needed for each video are announced beforehand, allowing youth to follow along and experience the jobs depicted in the videos.

Since all programs are conducted online, all participants can freely access the prepared job experience videos without restrictions of time and space, and the event period is extended to 9 days compared to previous years.

Youth who explore careers and experience jobs through the videos confirm their participation by completing a workbook after the experience and submitting it to their schools.

After the fair ends, the district plans to release all job experience videos on the Mapo Career and Job Experience Support Center’s YouTube channel, making them available for the general public to watch.

The Mapo Career and Job Experience Support Center (Director Junsik Eom), which organizes this event, was established in 2013 by Mapo-gu and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to support sustainable career education for youth centered on local resources. It currently operates youth career education and experience programs at the Mapo Central Library.

Mayor Yudonggyun of Mapo-gu stated, “It is important to support youth career exploration programs so they are not interrupted even as social distancing continues. Since the online event has no restrictions on experience time and space, we hope for much interest and participation from youth and parents.”