Women and Family-Friendly Social Enterprise Idea Contest... Until June 20

Pre-Startup Entrepreneurs, Teams or Individuals Within 2 Years of Startup Eligible to Participate

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will hold an idea contest to discover social enterprises that pursue employment and start-ups for career-interrupted women, youth independence, and expanded participation of multicultural families.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced that it will hold the "2021 Women and Family-Friendly (Preliminary) Social Enterprise Business Idea Contest" from June 6 to June 20.

This contest, held for the fifth time this year, is open to teams or individuals who are preliminary entrepreneurs or within two years of start-up in the fields of women, family, and youth. Ideas for products and services to be provided through social enterprises can be submitted by email by June 20.

After screening, five teams or individuals will be selected and provided with a certain amount of business development funds and consulting for applying for designation as a women and family-friendly preliminary social enterprise. The final results of the contest will be individually notified in July and published on the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family website.

A total of 20 teams have won the contest to date, of which 10 teams have been certified as social enterprises or designated as preliminary social enterprises and are active. ‘WithWater,’ the grand prize winner in 2018, which operates survival swimming and aquatic exercise education activities for children with disabilities, and ‘Undongchingu,’ the excellence award winner in 2020, which runs exercise programs to help women train their bodies more safely, have been designated as women and family-friendly preliminary social enterprises and are preparing to convert to social enterprise certification.

Kim Jongmi, Director of the Women’s Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, said, "I hope this idea contest will be a stepping stone for preliminary entrepreneurs interested in social enterprises to leap into women and family-friendly social enterprises," adding, "We will discover and support creative and innovative social enterprise business models to create women-friendly jobs and expand services in the fields of women, family, and youth."