The South Korean government has prioritized 'Youth Policy' as a major agenda item, marking the first time a government has established and advocated for national youth initiatives in areas such as housing, employment, and education.

Since 2023, as part of these initiatives, there has been a significant expansion in work experience opportunities across both the private and public sectors, aimed at assisting young individuals in their job searches and enhancing their practical job skills.

Drawing on the outcomes and feedback from 2023, there is a focus on bolstering the employment prospects of the youth and offering preparatory education for future members of organizations, alongside efforts to refine the internship system for 2024.

The 2024 Youth Internship Program is structured as follows:

□ Recruitment

ㅇ Scale: A total of 22,000 individuals, with an early recruitment of 13,000 people (60%) in the first half of the year

ㅇ Distribution: 8,400 in public enterprises (38%), 6,900 in quasi-government organizations (32%), and 6,500 in other public institutions (30%)

ㅇ Duration: The program plans to extend the desired 6-month internship period to approximately 10,000 individuals, recognizing that a six-month time frame is favored by the youth for enhancing practical work skills and employment readiness.

□ Evaluation and Incentives

The program introduces a novel evaluation system and incentives for the 6-month internships and outstanding organizations.

ㅇ Management Evaluation: The scope of the 2023 evaluations has been broadened to encompass both experiential and employment-focused internships, with a new assessment criterion for hiring outcomes extending beyond six months.

Furthermore, enhancements to the performance evaluations for 2024 are under consideration, such as improved incentives for six-month employment terms.

ㅇ Rewards for Institutions: Institutions demonstrating exceptional operational performance in terms of hiring volume and program quality will be selected for the Deputy Prime Minister's awards (10 institutions in total).

These institutions will be chosen through a public committee review and honored at the 2024 Public Committee meeting at the end of February.

□ Strengthening Regular Employment Support

This involves the selection of outstanding interns and the provision of differentiated preferential treatment.

ㅇ Excellent Interns: Interns will be evaluated based on performance, attitude, and other criteria during their internship, with the top 20% receiving certificates of excellence (S-grade) and recommendation letters.

ㅇ Enhanced Preferential Treatment: Outstanding interns will receive various preferential benefits in areas such as documentation, written exams, and interviews. For instance, interns with excellent evaluations could be exempt from certain documentation requirements, receive an additional 5% score on documents, or a 3% increase for demonstrating diligence.

[Source: Ministry of Economy and Finance]