After Helping 500 Youths Find Jobs, You Turn One... The First Anniversary of the Busan Youth Job Growth Cafe

A Platform Growing with Youth
Providing Customized Services for About 10,000 Participants
Third Branch Added This Year... Linked with Local Governments

What, you keep failing job applications? You haven't been to that 'cafe', have you?

There is a place in Busan called the 'Growth Cafe', a job connection platform where you can enjoy all kinds of 'dates' related to employment. The 'Busan Youth Job Growth Cafe', organized by the Busan Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Employment and Labor and operated by the Busan Employers Federation, has turned one year old.

Launched in April last year as the first of its kind in the country, the Growth Cafe has established itself as a local job platform for unemployed youth. In just one year of operation, a cumulative total of about 10,000 young people have participated, and 542 of them have successfully been connected to jobs.

At the opening ceremony of the Growth Cafe, Park Hyungjun, Mayor of Busan, is applauding in celebration.

The Growth Cafe has been operated to prevent young people from giving up on job searching and to provide individualized programs tailored to each participant. It is designed so that local youth can receive all the necessary counseling, training, and job connection support in one place while preparing for employment.

Over the past year, more than 500 programs have been held. Through these programs, participants' motivation to find jobs was increased, while both capacity building and employment support were provided simultaneously.

Employment accessibility for young people was also improved through customized capacity-building programs reflecting the characteristics of youth and the demands of local industries, matching between youth and companies, post-employment management, and linkage with youth policies. Recognizing these achievements, the Busan Metropolitan Government and the Busan Employers Federation were selected as the top institutions in the '2024 Youth Growth Project' evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor this year.

This year, the operation will be expanded with the goals of 'establishing a youth-tailored employment support hub' and 'resolving job mismatches'. On April 7, the third branch opened in the western part of Busan, and through this, on-site counseling and customized programs for local youth are being actively implemented. The annual number of program participants is also planned to increase from the current 3,000 to 4,000.

The Busan Employers Federation plans to collaborate with four additional local governments?Dongnae-gu, Busanjin-gu, Suyeong-gu, and Haeundae-gu?where new Growth Cafes will be established in 2025, to establish a network connecting metropolitan and local governments as well as operating organizations.

To mark the first anniversary of the Growth Cafe and the opening of the third branch, a visitor event was also held. The event gathered feedback from youth through initial counseling and reflected it in operations. The operating organization plans to continuously develop various linked programs, including job placement, livelihood stabilization, and housing support, based on youth participation experiences and policy needs.

Yoo Jungmin, Director General of the Busan Employers Federation, said, "We will further enhance the Growth Cafe so that it can effectively reduce job-search abandonment among local youth and provide real employment opportunities," adding, "We will devote our efforts to helping local youth find both jobs and a foundation for their lives."