Gwangju Youth Say, "Thanks to Gap Year, We Came Out Into the World"

City, 'Gwangju-type Youth Gap Year Performance Sharing Meeting'
Providing Opportunities for Overseas Experience, Career Exploration, and Advancement

Gwangju City held the "2024 Gwangju-style Youth Gap Year Performance Sharing Meeting" on the 18th at the Mudeung Hall in City Hall, attended by about 30 gap year participants. Photo by Gwangju City

“The Gwangju Gap Year Project has been a ladder that helped me climb out of the well and a mirror reflecting my true self.”

Gwangju’s representative youth policy, the ‘Gwangju-type Youth Gap Year,’ is becoming a ladder of hope for young people.

On the 18th, Gwangju City held the ‘2024 Gwangju-type Youth Gap Year Performance Sharing Meeting’ at the Mudeung Hall in City Hall, attended by about 30 gap year participants.

The ‘Gwangju-type Youth Gap Year Project’ is a flagship youth policy of Gwangju City under the 8th municipal administration, supporting young people to turn the gap period that occurs during their studies and job preparation into an opportunity for growth by providing various experiences and activities abroad. Through this, it helps them explore their interests and aptitudes and find their career paths.

To encourage participants to explore their own interests and aptitudes, the city recruited in five fields: volunteering, professional courses, career exploration, internships, and working holidays. Participants planned and executed projects themselves, including budgeting. Gwangju City supported activity expenses of up to 5 million KRW per person for matters related to entry and exit such as flight ticket reservations and visa issuance procedures, one-on-one individual counseling (consulting), and carrying out various overseas program missions.

The performance sharing meeting was organized for about 30 participants to share and communicate their achievements after the gap year program.

In particular, participants created vlogs in which they documented the missions and experiences they completed during the overseas gap year program, sharing them with other participants and presenting their impressions, including how they have changed through the program.

Kim Dong-hyun, Director of the Education and Youth Bureau, said, “Through the Gwangju-type Youth Gap Year, I hope participants learn the spirit of challenge by planning, budgeting, and executing the program themselves, and that even trial and error becomes a valuable asset. Gwangju City will continue to do its best for a bright future for young people.”