"Please Help Us Get Jobs"... What Activities Are Seoul Districts Undertaking to Support Youth Employment and Startups?

Mapo-gu Motivates Future Employees with AI-Based Job Group Introductions... Gwanak-gu Trains 'Shopfluencers' Interested in Live Commerce Broadcasting and Entrepreneurship... Gwangjin-gu Promotes Company Visits for Youth Who Gave Up Job Searching

A society becomes healthy only when young people step forward as the center of economic activity with creativity and a spirit of challenge.

However, youth employment is by no means easy, and economic vitality is gradually declining. In this situation, Seoul’s autonomous districts are actively working to support youth employment and entrepreneurship, earning applause.

They are conducting special lectures on artificial intelligence (AI) for young people and providing training to nurture shopfluencers. Some districts are also organizing company visits for youth who have given up on job searching, inspiring motivation for employment and delivering a fresh impact.

Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo District, is examining lettuce grown in the smart farm set up in the lobby of Mapo District Office together with children.

Mapo-gu (District Mayor Park Gang-su) is holding a relay special lecture series with experts to help young people and women with career interruptions understand artificial intelligence and expand opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship through it.

The lectures will be held four times between September 4 and 10. Mapo-gu invited experts from various fields to introduce diverse AI-based occupations and help set motivation and goals for future careers.

The first session, themed “Smart Farm,” will be delivered by Kang Gil-mo, CEO of Future Connect. CEO Kang will introduce the vision and prospects of an attractive future industry through the case of the “Live Farm” service, which uses vegetables grown directly in urban smart farms. The second session will be led by Jang Byung-jun, CEO of No Code Camp and a YouTuber with 90,000 subscribers known as “Iljalla Jang PM,” who will explain essential AI practical skills to survive in the workplace. The third lecture will be given by Lee Ho-yeol, director of Korea Drone King, who is active in the drone industry, sharing everything about drone filming and interesting information as a future career. The final fourth session will feature Kim Ji-hoon, director of Codepresso, and Kim Yurianna, CEO of Wello, who will present success stories and strategies of young entrepreneurs using AI, introducing the necessary competencies in the changing youth startup ecosystem and startup stories and success strategies utilizing AI technology and data.

The lectures are open to anyone aged 19 to 39 who lives or has their living area in Mapo-gu, including women with career interruptions. Participation can be applied for by scanning the QR code on the lecture poster. Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “For young people and women with career interruptions seeking new future jobs, advancing into AI-utilizing fields could be a good answer.”

Gwanak-gu (District Mayor Park Jun-hee), the city with the highest youth population ratio nationwide, is operating “Shopfluencer Training” for young people interested in employment and entrepreneurship in the live commerce broadcasting field. A shopfluencer is a marketing expert who acts as both a “show host” and an “influencer,” introducing and selling products based on an understanding of the global e-commerce market while being an influential influencer on social media.

The district planned this training in line with the rapidly expanding e-commerce market trend, where individual sellers are the main product sellers. The training is designed not only for young people hoping to work or start a business as show hosts or in live commerce but also for those who want to pursue multiple jobs (N-jobs) through personal live commerce broadcasting. The program covers topics such as ▲utilization techniques for different broadcasting platforms ▲content planning for revenue generation ▲marketing strategies ▲YouTube & SNS broadcasting ▲live broadcasting techniques ▲and practical live broadcasting.

The district plans to invite instructors with extensive experience as show hosts and in live commerce who actually operate commerce platforms to provide professional lectures. In particular, participants will have a great opportunity to experience the “shopfluencer” profession by conducting individual broadcasts during the training hours.

The training will be held free of charge at Gwanak Youth Center for six weeks (eight sessions) from August 29 to October. The application period is until the 25th, and applicants can apply by scanning the QR code on promotional posters and banners and filling out the application form. However, since this is a youth project of Gwanak-gu, priority will be given to residents of Gwanak-gu, recruiting a total of 35 young people.

Kim Kyung-ho, the head of Gwangjin District Office, is communicating with young people last month.

Gwangjin-gu (District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho) has been making a fresh impact by promoting company visits for youth who have given up on job searching since the end of July.

This company visit program was conducted as part of the Youth Challenge Support Project. The Youth Challenge Support Project is designed to boost the employment will and confidence of young people aged 19 to 39 who have no history of employment or participation in vocational training for more than six months, providing employment counseling and customized programs.

The company visits, which provide job experience, actively reflected the opinions of 70 participants in the Youth Challenge Project. They visited companies and industries of interest, touring facilities and communicating with practitioners to resolve questions, making for a meaningful time.

The company visits began on July 31 and included visits to ▲“Cafe 1847” for cafe operation and startup ▲“Gun Solution” for smart factory tours combining manufacturing technology and robots ▲“Four Points by Sheraton Guro” for improving skills in the tourism service sector ▲“We Data Lab Co., Ltd.” and “Chroma Entertainment Co., Ltd.” to learn marketing techniques using artificial intelligence, gaining broad experience. Kim Kyung-ho, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, said, “I hope this company visit program will boost confidence in job searching and serve as a stepping stone for successful social entry. Since job experience plays an important role in hiring, we will actively support youth employment activities by discovering various experience-centered projects.”