Gwangmyeong City Wins Grand Prize in City and County Category at Gyeonggi-do Lifelong Learning Awards

First in the Nation to Provide Lifelong Learning Support Funds to All Citizens in Their 50s
Mayor Park Seungwon: "We Will Build a City Where Learning Becomes a Way of Life"

Gwangmyeong City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 23rd that it had won the grand prize in the city and county category at the 5th Gyeonggi-do Lifelong Learning Awards.

Park Seungwon, Mayor of Gwangmyeong City, is celebrating the grand prize of the Gyeonggi-do Lifelong Learning Awards with staff members. Photo by Gwangmyeong City

This award was established by Gyeonggi Province to discover and spread outstanding cases of individuals, institutions, and organizations that have contributed to the promotion of lifelong learning. Winners are selected through a document review and an interview process.

The city explained that it was recognized for its lifelong learning support fund policy, which received high marks this year. Previously, in 2023, the city received the Excellence Award for its policy on lifelong learning for people with disabilities, and last year, it was selected as an excellent city at the Korea Lifelong Learning Awards.

The city's lifelong learning support fund policy aims to provide learning opportunities for the middle-aged, who had previously been overlooked by lifelong learning policies, to prepare for the second chapter of their lives. In particular, the support fund has been credited with creating a virtuous cycle in which financial support leads to actual participation in learning and local consumption, thereby fostering both the local economy and a culture of learning.

In 2023, the city established the institutional foundation by enacting a related ordinance for the first time in the country. It now provides lifelong learning points worth 300,000 won per person to all citizens in their 50s, regardless of income or social class.

In addition, the city is expanding a citizen participation-based learning ecosystem through initiatives such as the establishment of the lifelong learning platform “Gwangmyeong(e)ji,” operation of village learning communities and learning clubs, training of citizen instructors, and the operation of a lifelong learning city for people with disabilities.

Park Seungwon, Mayor of Gwangmyeong City, said, “The city has designed lifelong learning policies by regarding learning not as welfare but as a right of citizens. We will create a lifelong learning city where learning does not stop at individual growth but becomes the city’s competitive strength.”